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The National Social Science Series 

Edited by Frank L. McVey. Ph.D., LL.D., 

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University of North Dakota 

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Taxation 

THE FAMILY AND SOCIETY. John M. Gillette, 
Professor of Sociology, University of North Dakota 

To Be Issued in 1914 

THE STATE AND GOVERNMENT. John S. Young 

THE CITY. Henry C. Wright 

POLITICAL ECONOMY. Frank L. McVey 

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THE 

Family and Society 



BY 

John M. Gillette, Ph.D. 

Professor of Sociology in the University of North 

Dakota; Author of "Vocational Education" 

and "Constructive Rural Sociology" 




CHICAGO 
A. C. McCLURG & CO. 

1914 



ho 









Copyright 

A. C. McClurg & Co. 

1914 




Published January, 1914 



Copyrighted in Great Britain 

JAN 12 1914 



W F. HAIL PRINTING COMPANY, CHICAGO 



>Ci.A36156.j 



EDITOR'S PREFACE 

THE original arrangement of Dr. Gillette's 
book called for the placing of the third 
chapter as the first and then proceeding from 
the Biological Phases of Sex and Family to the 
Origin of Marriage, the Evolution of the Family, 
the Functions of the Family, and closing with 
Some Current Conditions Affecting the Family. 
The present arrangement of the table of con- 
tents brings first to the reader's attention the 
function which the family performs in a present 
day society, while the chapter on the Biological 
Phases of Sex and the Family is left for the 
last of the book. This chapter deals rather 
minutely with the origin of sex and its place in 
social relations; the justification for the appear- 
ance of the chapter in a book of this kind is to 
be found, if for no other reason, in the great 
interest in eugenics. Dr. Gillette has summa- 
rized in an interesting way the discussion on 
sex origin and in doing so has performed a 
service that will be appreciated by those follow- 
ing the trend of eugenic discussion. 

F. L. M. 



AUTHOR'S PREFACE 

THE large attention given the family in 
recent years has been deserved because of 
the antiquity of that institution, its comparatively 
original and self-sufficing character, and its abil- 
ity to mirror and prepare for the larger collective 
life. No doubt the large place the social sciences 
occupy in today's affairs, the ethnological and 
sociological treatments of marriage and the fam- 
ily, and the transformation which changing social 
conditions have made in this domestic institution 
largely account for the increased attention. 

The present book does not seek to be original 
in its treatment of the family. It does seek to 
be authoritative, in the sense that the author has 
consistently gone back to best authorities and 
original documents for his facts. The work, 
therefore, is not theoretical but factual. To the 
measure of the writer's ability, it represents a 
scientific interpretation of a large body of data. 
It is hoped that such a compendium and inter- 
pretation may find a useful place in the lives of 
busy men and women, and even prove to be an 
intelligent guide to students of the family in a 
larger study. 

John M. Gillette. 

University of North Dakota. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Chapter I. Functions of the Family .... i 

I. Physical Reproduction of Society ... 2 

II. Sociological Reproduction 7 

Jit. Relation of Family to Society .... 16 

IV. The Family in Relation to Parents . . 25 

V. Summary 29 

Chapter II. Origin of Marriage 32 

I. Marriage Among Animals 34 

II. The Earliest Human Sex Relation . . 40 

III. The Belief in Promiscuity 51 

Chapter III. The Evolution of the Family . . 54 

I. Types of Families 55 

II. Occurrence of the Forms of the Family . 56 

III. Kinship Systems 62 

IV. Reasons for Various Forms of the Family 66 
V. Development of the Monogamous Family 78 

Chapter IV. Current Conditions Affecting the 

Family 84 

I. Conditions Affecting Marriage .... 85 



Contents 



PAGE 

II. Conditions Affecting the Size of Families 89 

III. Divorce • • 95 

IV. The Social Evil 114 

Chapter V. Biological Phases of Sex and the 

Family 122 

I. The Appearance of Sex ....... 124 

II. The Function of Sex 132 

III. Nature of Sex Differences 136 

IV. Sex Determination 143 

V. Summary 152 

References I5£ 



The Family and Society 



The Family and Society 

CHAPTER I 

Functions of the Family 

EVERY human institution, by reason of the 
fact that it is a social institution, must be 
held responsible for the exercise of certain socio- 
logical functions. It is often supposed that 
institutions exist for themselves. It is not rec- 
ognized that every such organization should be 
regarded as an agency through which men and 
society work to secure collective results, and that, 
therefore, its justification and test of efficiency 
reside in its community usefulness. In meas- 
uring the functions of the family it must submit 
to this test. It is consequently necessary to dis- 
cover the sociological functions of the family in 
order to estimate its utility and how far it is 
a necessary institution. What is the family's 
relation to the larger social world? What serv- 
ices does it perform for society that society 
imperatively needs ? 

But while institutions exist for serving the 
larger community needs they also are the means 

1 



The Family and Society 



of giving satisfaction to individuals considered 
as human beings. Human beings, just because 
they are human beings, have a right to many 
satisfactions in life which conceivably do not 
immediately touch general social interests. In 
so far as those satisfactions do not interfere with 
collective interests, their attainment is legitimate. 
It may be found possible to regard the family 
as an institution that realizes [the maximum of 
personal satisfaction to its members, j without at 
the same time injuring the interests of the larger 
community. Such a consideration should find 
a place in treating the functions of the family. 

1. Physical Reproduction of Society 

The first general function of the family is the 
physical reproduction of society. First, in order 
that society should continue it is necessary that 
its constituent members should be replaced as 
they are eliminated. While society is a psychical 
fact it is nevertheless constituted of the inter- 
relations of minds which are connected with 
physical bodies. In a real sense it is true that 
society exists for the welfare of its constituent 
members. Viewed biologically the individual mind 
is a function of the body in the sense that it is 
an instrument for the better adjustment of the 



Functions of the Family 



organism to its more complex environment. Sim- 
ple organisms have little need of mind because 
the environment is immediate and simple. But 
with growing complexity of surrounding con- 
ditions there is a concomitant demand for an 
agent that can sense things remote in time and 
space. While this is not the whole function of 
mind it is a very necessary duty. In like manner 
society and the social mind may be viewed as the 
necessary means by which the organisms of its 
constituent members are adjusted to a tremen- 
dously complicated situation. And while this 
does not tell the whole story of society it is an 
important item. In any event the bodies of 
human beings are essential to society, and it is 
necessary to replace them if society is to be 
perpetuated. 

A constant and effective agency is required 
to perform this imperative function. During 
the evolution of sentient beings a great many 
devices have been tried to secure this end ; repro- 
duction by segmentation, by budding, and other 
methods among lowest forms of life; promis- 
cuity among many animals; and the family in 
its several forms among human beings. And as 
we are to see, the monogamic family appears to 
have been worked out as the most serviceable 
method to secure the various results which the 



The Family and Society 



family is required to bring about. Doubtless 
many individuals are produced by the method 
of promiscuity, but promiscuity must be viewed 
as an inadequate and irresponsible agency since 
it fails to create the type of men and women 
society demands. The parental factor and the 
home influences are essential elements even for 
tht production of a physically valid stock. Even 
could society find a sufficient substitute for the 
home, promiscuity entails venereal diseases, close 
in-breeding, and other evils which produce a 
degenerate physical type of being. 

Second, the family touches national life on 
its physical side. For one thing, it serves as a 
means of holding people in permanent relations 
with the land. The settled character of life has 
developed with the increment and definition of 
family functions. The adoption of a permanent 
mode of shelter and defense has tended to bind 
populations to a locality. The establishment of 
property as an institution and its perpetuation 
through the family have proved to be profound 
forces for securing the settlement and stability 
of aggregates of individuals. Were proof de- 
sired for this statement it would be sufficient to 
refer to the unsettled state of primitive peoples, 
and to the migrations of the barbarians of the 
North which eventuated in the overrunning of 



Functions of the Family 5 

Rome. Since an essential idea in the constitution 
of the state is a settled people within a defined 
territory, and since the family is the most uni- 
versal and conspicuous method of holding a 
population to given areas and standards of liv- 
ing, the value of the latter in a national sense 
is evident. 

For another thing, the family insures, with 
hardly any exception, a growing population. An 
increasing population has always been regarded 
as a national asset. Whether this will always be 
true is rather immaterial, as also would be the 
abstract discussion over whether or not it should 
be so. 

Proceeding on the basis of facts, a large popu- 
lation is and has been a direct benefit to nations 
possessing it. Under similar conditions the 
nation that possesses the largest population is 
the strongest in a physical contest. Although 
there may be limits beyond which an increased 
population would render no further advantage 
in that direction, a large population gives the 
basis for an extensive division of labor and spe- 
cialization and therefore makes possible a supe- 
rior internal organization. While it is probably 
unfortunate, yet it is an undoubted fact, that 
population and wealth are signs of national 
reputability in much the same way that worldly 



6 The Family and Society 

possessions enhance the importance of the indi- 
vidual in the community. With a given standard 
the nation with the largest population is most 
weighty in international matters, and looking 
into the future, as the world regards things now, 
the nation's future is probably the most secure a 
hundred years hence which promises the most 
numerous citizenship. Since promiscuity under 
present conditions would entail a high death rate 
among children, and debilitate the stock, that 
form of reproduction would offer little security 
for a nation's future. And since the monogamic 
family makes every man and woman available 
for reproductive purposes, prevents close in- 
breeding, reduces venereal diseases, both of which 
latter evils impair the physical type, and is con- 
ducive to saving infant life, it would appear to 
be the best means of securing a growing popu- 
lation. 

Third, the family on its physical side has 
eugenic implications. Because it is the medium 
of replacing decedent members of society it bears 
the responsibility of affecting the inherent physi- 
cal character of the stock. Persons who marry, 
because of their selective power relative to mates, 
determine whether the race shall become physi- 
cally strong or weak. And since health and 
strength, that is, bodily validity, are the f ounda- 



Functions of the Family 



tion of individual and social mind, of social en- 
ergy, and of the general welfare, it is of para- 
mount importance that this function be well exer- 
cised. Society's interest in the matter is so 
fundamental that it should not do less than adopt 
all effective means for securing sound parents 
and preventing perilous marriages. 

2. Sociological Reproduction 

There are good reasons to believe that origi- 
nally society was created by the family. Because 
the family was the first permanent social group 
and institution, and because of its reproductive 
functions, it not only preceded but produced 
other social institutions. At a later date, as in 
fact in every age, the form and quality of the 
family is a product of general conditions, but 
this does not invalidate the previous statement. 
While society now creates the family, the latter 
was primarily the creator of society. That it 
has always been capable of producing society 
will appear from the following considerations. 

In a real sense the domestic institution is the 
archetype of society at large. As Leibnitz be- 
held the reflection of the universe in each of his 
monads, so likewise the family group is the 
society microcosm. While it is true that the rela- 



8 The Family and Society 

tions of members of this group to each other are 
peculiar to this group only in that parenthood, 
childhood, fraternity, husband and wife bear 
their own special meanings, nevertheless the rudi- 
ments of the structures and functions of society 
at large are to be found in the family. It is not 
to be supposed that this is true just because the 
larger society expanded from the family, but 
rather because in the nature of things all social 
groups have to be founded on essentially the same 
principles. This is particularly true relative to 
division of labor between members. The princi- 
ple of the division of labor with its consequent 
interdependence of active members is identical in 
the family and in all other social institutions. 
I Again, it is significant that all members of the 
family group issue into the social life at large, 
carrying with them the impress of the family; 
and that all persons who establish families come 
in from the larger world bringing the more 
generalized impress of society to bear on the 
developing of offspring. Thus there is a con- 
stant give and take, a passing back and forth 
between the general and special group. It is 
obviously necessary that the groups should be 
similar, otherwise the inter-migration would 
prove disastrous. The parents bring in a larger 
culture from the world outside which the off- 



Functions of the Family 



spring imitate and assimilate. Sometimes excep- 
tionally talented parents create a culture higher 
than the general standard of the community, 
which the children of the particular home absorb. 
In either case children find in the home their 
initial equipment for contact with the world. 
Moreover, at all times there is a give and take 
between the family and the world. Consequently 
it is inevitable that each shall be influenced by 
the other and it likewise follows that the less 
shall be forced to make the larger response. 

That there may be no doubt that the family 
is the incubator of social members, it is expe- 
dient to pass in review its early institutional 
features. First, it possesses a division of labor 
which is necessary to its existence and which 
trains the young for that of the larger commu- 
nity. Between man and wife this obtains prin- 
cipally. The husband is the bread winner, the 
wife the home maker. As the offspring develop, 
they are introduced to certain duties in the 
household economy. The boys build fires, get 
fuel, bring water, and care for many small mat- 
ters that the father formerly looked after. If 
the home is on the farm, various kinds of light 
work fall to the boy also. Caring for horses, 
cattle, hogs, and poultry are essential features. 
Unfortunately, in cities there is little for the boy 



10 The Family and Society 

to do at home and he consequently misses an 
essential part of his training and development. 
But in many occupations, the boys gravitate into 
the occupation of the father and begin to work 
with him early in life. The girls likewise assist 
the mother in her household duties as they get 
old enough, and the technique of housekeeping 
and care of children is thus obtained by them. 
Not only do the children obtain an idea of 
division of labor in the home but learn to co- 
operate, to bear and share responsibility; and 
what is of great importance, they get a discipline, 
a habit of industry which is necessary for 
productive citizenship. 

- Second, family life epitomises the great eco- 
nomic activities of society in that it involves 
production, distribution, and consumption of 
wealth. That it consumes wealth in the articles 
and foods it uses is obvious. Its productive 
activity may consist of the produce raised on 
the farm, the foods and clothes worked up into 
consumptive form in the home itself, or be rep- 
resented by the income gained from the occupa- 
tions of members of the family. The income 
may be shared on a fair and open basis or very 
unequally, as in society generally. Unfair fam- 
ily distribution may be accepted passively or 
resented and so become a cause of family dis- 



Functions of the Family 11 

memberment. Fortunate are the children and 
wise the parents of the family in which justice 
and equity in sharing the income obtains. Fur- 
ther, a large item in preparing children for life 
is their training in using and caring for some 
share of the income, though it may be small. 

Third, the governmental institutions of society 
have their prototype in the family. The family 
has its head and executive in father or mother, 
its laws which are laid down by the parents in 
rules of action, its common law in the family 
customs and common consent, its court of justice 
as infractions of law and custom are judged, its 
penal and reformatory phases in the treatment 
accorded offenders, its public opinion which 
affects its legislative, administrative, and judicial 
activities. Further, it may make budgets so as 
to keep within its income and have a sinking fund 
for emergencies. Thus the children in the home 
are made acquainted with the essentials of gov- 
ernmental functions and are able to appreciate 
the simpler aspects of the state when they meet 
it as citizens. One of the conspicuous truths 
arising from the study of criminals is that ruth- 
less, loose, and unfair family governments have 
far reaching effects towards making anti-social 
individuals. The converse is also true, namely, 
that a well governed and conducted family pro- 



12 The Family and Society 

motes the socialization of the offspring in a most 
effective manner. 

Fourth, education is begun in the family. In- 
deed, the most important educative period takes 
place in the home. The perceptive period of 
childhood covers the first few years of life. In 
those years the normal child is hungry to know 
objects and their qualities and the larger part of 
this kind of knowledge of the world is obtained 
then. The intelligent parent is of utmost assist- 
ance to the child in this and in all learning 
directions. The child's first information comes 
from its parents and it is dependent on them for 
years as its chief authoritative informants. Since 
wide and exact information plays so large a part 
in the modern world, it is essential that this 
acquisitive period should be stimulated and devel- 
oped in every good way. " Dull pupils " are quite 
largely the product of dull homes. The home 
that is backward in conversation, books and 
papers, story telling, and efforts to open up 
the child's imagination can not give the stimulus 
that the development of intelligence requires. 
Where the parents pay no attention to books and 
papers and carry on no discussions, it is rare 
that the children establish a reading habit. Large 
items in the education of individuals are those 
of sanitation, health, and sex hygiene. The 



Functions of the Family 13 

home that carefully attends to these matters 
exercises a beneficent influence on the future 
career of its children, and a profound effect on 
the world. Much of the deficit in the health 
and strength of mature men and women is due 
to the neglect of childhood. The parents who 
maintain healthful conditions in the home and 
teach the young by example and rational training 
to care for themselves properly, are indeed social 
benefactors. As in other matters a good habit 
established early is better than much teaching 
and lecturing later. Especially in sex matters 
the home is the most suitable educator. Intelli- 
gent and sympathetic parents are better able to 
explain the mysteries, functions, and responsi- 
bilities of reproduction to their offspring than 
any outside parties. Much of the vice of the 
times is traceable to ignorance, false modesty, 
and neglect on the part of fathers and mothers. 
In too many cases the influence and example of 
the parents is not only negative but conduces to 
creating vicious careers. 

Moral training is an essential factor in educa- 
tion and is a vital affair of the family. Genuine 
ethical training is best given in the home. 
Language, mathematics, sciences of all kinds may 
be taught more efficiently by institutions of learn- 
ing. But society trains but rudely in morals. It 



14 The Family and Society 

recognizes only the gross and outward sins; it 
punishes harshly and unsympathetically. "The 
fundamental conception of a true self-assertion 
and a genuine self-sacrifice" are learned only in 
the family. In it "the strong learn to respect 
the weaker, the weak are encouraged to develop 
their strength by using it, under the influence 
of family love. The absoluteness of duty, and 
the true excellence of virtue, can be learned only 
in the family. Only a parent can say 'thou 
shalt ;' and compel hearty obedience by the power 
of an overmastering love." It is a most difficult 
task to inculcate duty and disciplined obedience 
in adults who iave never learned them in the 
home. Loyal citizens of the state are made by 
sympathetic yet firm parental control. The home 
is the best generator of civic sentiments and 
virtues. It promotes the development of loyalty 
and patriotism since the fatherland is the exten- 
sion of the home. The self-sacrifice and devo- 
tion that are demanded in the larger community 
life are born and nourished in the family. The 
qualities of personality which society so highly 
appreciates, those delicate excellencies of honor, 
tact, and sympathy, are learned outside the home 
only by the rarest experience, but seldom at all. 
The life of the family is highly conducive to 
the development of the moral life of the parent. 



Functions of the Family 15 

The establishment of a home and family creates 
a new sense of responsibility and develops powers 
hitherto rudimentary. It brings into play the 
moral power of self-sacrifice, of living and striv- 
ing for the group, so little developed in single 
persons. It enhances and promotes the ideal in 
life and puts a premium on self -subordination 
and discipline to realize that ideal. 

Fifth, in matters of religion, the life of the 
family plays an essential role in one way or an- 
other. Religion is less an affair of birth than 
of cultivation. While the child that does not 
secure its religious ideas in the home may later 
become religious, its religion is likely to be less 
deep and more artificial than in the case of the 
child who develops in the midst of a religious 
atmosphere. Until civilized times the family was 
closely bound up with worship, and if the larger 
society was religious it was because the home 
life was intensely such. Modern religion has 
become less superstitious and more ethical. Sci- 
ence and the sceptical attitude is more general. 
The church is generally divorced from the state. 
While society now is not religious in form it 
possesses a religious structure, the church, which 
fosters religion in the home and serves as the 
religious nexus between the home and society at 
large. No doubt a truly ethical religious atmos- 



16 The Family and Society 

phere in the average home would be influential 
in making better citizens. 

Sixth, the home touches the larger world by 
its attitude relative to recreation and beauty. 
Whether the tastes of the young shall be devel- 
oped or undeveloped, high or low, depends more 
on what the home presents and encourages than 
on any other factor. Cleanliness, order, taste in 
arrangement, comeliness of house and grounds, 
are conditions that mould the soul of the child 
in its daily reactions and development. In like 
manner the attitude and tastes of the parents 
relative to what sports and forms of recreation 
are suitable give a direction to the lives of the 
children. Since games, sports, and recreation 
constitute such a vital part in the life of the 
world, are agencies which befoul or purify it, 
it follows that fathers and mothers have a very 
large responsibility in moulding the appetites and 
directing the recreational activities of their 
offspring. 

3. Relation of Family to Society 

We have seen how profoundly the family con- 
tributes to the larger social life in exercising its 
function of socializing the young individuals. 
What is to be discussed here might have been 
developed there, since what is to be said still 



Functions of the Family 17 

concerns the development of the offspring. How- 
ever, the point of emphasis in discussing sociolog- 
ical reproduction was the function of the family 
in preparing its offspring to lead a social life, 
in socializing, humanizing, personalizing them. 
The emphasis now is to be on society itself rather 
than on the offspring. In what fundamental 
ways is society affected by the life and work 
of the domestic institution? 

First, how far is the family an independent 
social group, and in what sense, if at all, is it 
the social unit? In discussions of the family it 
is frequently asserted that that group is self- 
sufficing and that it is the only group that is. 
This was true of the family in patriarchal times 
because at that time it was society. A family 
group was a society, and although many such 
groups may have sustained loose relations to a 
larger governmental order, the essential functions 
and activities of a society were carried on in the 
patriarchal institution. In almost an exclusive 
sense it was self-sufficing. Had there been no 
other groups, no larger governmental organiza- 
tion, which often was the case, it could reproduce 
its members and prosecute the sustaining and reg- 
ulating activities necessary to group existence. 
Even in later times, as seen in the case of 
frontier life in America before the industrial era, 



18 The Family and Society 

the family was self-sustaining, and in connection 
with other families, self-protecting. However, 
conditions have changed. Under a highly indus- 
trialized, specialized, interdependently function- 
ing complex of social structures, the family is 
quite dependent on the larger community for its 
life and prosperity. This is obviously true in 
urban communities. But it is almost as true for 
rural regions. In relatively few cases could the 
farm family support itself apart from society 
at large. The produce of the farm is not raised 
for home consumption, but is disposed of in 
distant markets. The grain must be sent away 
to be ground into flour and meal so that bread 
may be made. The clothes, groceries, implements 
are manufactured in factories and sold to farmers. 
Education is a community affair. The govern- 
ment builds roads, bridges, school-houses, and 
performs other useful and necessary services. 
Were the farm family reduced to a self-sufficing 
basis, civilization would move backward a cen- 
tury and the nation would suffer a large depop- 
ulation. The urban family is directly and im- 
mediately dependent on society at large for its 
sustenance, education, conveniences, and protec- 
tion in many ways. 

We must conclude that the family is not a 
self-sufficing, independent institution but that it 



Functions of the Family 19 

is grounded on the existence and welfare of the 
larger social order. 

The uncritical statement is often made that 
the family is the social unit. Since there are 
many kinds of social units the family can not 
be the social unit. The United States census 
gives statistics of the population of the nation 
by families, to be sure. But it also does the same 
by individuals, by races, by nationalities, by sex, 
age, and so on. For most statistical purposes 
the individual is the unit of society. The same 
is true for most economic and sociological con- 
siderations. The point is made that since society 
may be resolved into families which alone of the 
many social factors are capable of self-repro- 
duction it alone is the true unit. Were society 
eliminated by a great catastrophe, most of the 
population destroyed, the ideas of achieve- 
ment lost so that the race had to begin afresh, 
the family would doubtless be the starting place 
in the process of reconstruction. Individuals 
would not be self-reproducing. But such a sit- 
uation is unthinkable. As we have seen, taking 
society as it is today, the family is not self- 
sufficing and independent, and consequently pos- 
sesses practically no claim to being the exclusive 
social unit. 

Second, the family institution is a part of the 



20 The Family and Society 

mechanism of society by which the social order 
is perpetuated. It is said that the universe is 
orderly because its various systems of suns, plan- 
ets, and nebulae preserve relatively the same rela- 
tions to each other in their movements and rota- 
tions. Were our solar system to vary incalculably 
or were a nebula to tear across the universe in 
an irresponsible manner, were things to act 
chaotically and without regular relations to each 
other, there would be no universe, no order. In 
like manner there is said to be a social order 
because the various organizations, institutions, 
customs, ideas, which constitute society remain 
comparatively fixed and orderly relative to each 
other. A relatively stable and fixed social order 
is not only a great convenience but a prime 
necessity for purposes of conducting the affairs 
of life. If we are to carry any plan or pursuit 
to a successful end it is requisite that the future 
conditions involved in the enterprise shall be 
known. That means that they shall be fixed and 
orderly so that they may be understood. While 
society does undergo transformations from time 
to time, while evolution and progress are de- 
sirable, nevertheless pursuits and happiness in 
life demand a large amount of social stability. 
Sociologists have worked out a doctrine of 
the social order and of progress. Progress comes 



Functions of the Family 21 

by reason of gradual changes introduced into 
society which are chiefly caused by the inventions 
and achievements, the new ideas, which are con- 
tributed by men and women of talent ; providing 
always that these changes advance the common 
welfare. On the other hand, the social order 
is maintained by reason of a kind of social 
inertia. The mass of men are imitative, not 
creative. New ideas do not reach them in child- 
hood when the mass of ideas are established. The 
ideas that have been handed down from time 
immemorial through successive generations con- 
stitute the common stock of mental pabulum. 
Tradition acts as a long leading string that binds 
the present to the past. Custom constitutes a 
great mould which, like the basket used by the 
Chinook Indians to deform the heads of their 
infants, presses upon the mind of every child. 
Conventionality weaves its web about the minds 
of the new generation. Imitation plays like a 
shuttle through them all. Hence the generation 
growing up becomes like that which surrounds 
it. The old order changes slowly, if it changes 
at all. Those that desire a new order are able 
to reach the mass of citizens but slightly. Hence 
progress is not catastrophic. 

This brief exposition enables us to see how 
the family enters into the situation. It takes 



The Family and Society 



the young in the great imitative period of life 
when they are most plastic and impresses upon 
them the stock of ideas which the parents re- 
ceived from their parents in turn and which have 
been but little modified by their larger contact 
and experience with the world. For the mass of 
people life consists more of habitual movements 
organized into activities than it does of ideas. 
Modes of doing things : keeping house, sweeping, 
dusting, bread-making, preserving fruits, caring 
for children, going to church, disposal of leisure 
time, home manners, attitude towards wife and 
children, outlook on life and the world, and mul- 
titudes of other activities and attitudes constitute 
the larger side of life of the masses. These are 
learned and perpetuated by home influences. In 
modern times the press, theater, education, and 
other agencies have entered into the situation to 
counteract the conservative influence of the home. 
Before their time society moved forward but 
little because of the dominating influence of the 
two great conservative agencies, the family and 
the church. In religion, sociability forms, and 
in the transfer of property in the line of descent, 
the family is a conspicuous example of con- 
servation, sometimes of reaction. It is likewise 
a conservative medium for the transmission of 
ethical doctrines and of sentiments. 



Functions of the Family 23 

Third, the family as family appears to touch 
the matter of social progress but little, save on 
the assimilative side. Yet there are certain 
aspects of progress in which the domestic institu- 
tion may have a part. As in biological matters 
variation is the basis of evolution, new kinds of 
plants and animals which are better adapted to 
live being initiators of new varieties or at least 
making advances in the stock of forms; so in 
society beneficial changes are instigated by indi- 
vidual and societal variations. A better physical 
stock of men is conducive to the improvement 
of society and serves as the basis of creating a 
higher order of intellectual activity. Since 
genius is so closely bound up with body and brain 
we must expect an improved stock of people to 
give rise to a larger share of potential talent. 
It is the business of society to see that this born 
genius becomes matured and fruitful. But the 
family by careful selection in mating may act 
as a promoter of progress relative to securing a 
better physical stock. 

We have seen that progress is secured by the 
changes which ensue by the adoption on the 
part of society of the contributions of its men 
of talent and genius. These inventions are not 
only material, as the locomotive, harvester, tele- 
graph, printing press; but take the form of 



24 The Family and Society 

books, scientific discoveries, legislation, literature, 
art, plans, and organization for social ameliora- 
tion. Doubtless many men of real genius lie 
undiscovered in backward communities and dull 
homes. Had the same individuals been born and 
reared in the enlightened and stimulating atmos- 
phere of cultured homes they would have had the 
opportunities of becoming productive. It is here 
that the home has a chance to make its con- 
tribution to social progress by placing intel- 
lectual opportunities before the child or placing 
the child in contact with the opportunities of 
intellectual quickening. It may be in nature 
study, in mechanics, invention, literature, music ; 
but the opportunity to self-discovery is what is 
needed. The development of a public school sys- 
tem has taken a part of the responsibility off the 
family. But alert, resourceful, devoted parents 
will always have an exceptional work to do in 
stimulating and awakening the minds of the 
children in their earlier years. 

But since progress is more than mere social 
change, since it is essentially those changes which 
advance the welfare of the masses of citizens, the 
ethical sentiments are involved in it- Society 
often flounders through a period of profound 
changes by reason of the introduction of new fac- 
tors when it cannot be said that it is making 



Functions of the Family 25 

progress because the fruits of the new creations 
are being appropriated by a few shrewd and 
selfish individuals. Moreover, a nation may send 
out its armies in a ruthless war because of false 
sentiments. Could the social outlook be given, 
could individuals be ethically socialized, the pro- 
moters of great undertakings would share their 
benefits with the mass of men who contribute to 
their success and the citizenship of a nation would 
insist on international justice, rather than on 
revenge and exploitation. The foundations of 
the ethics of life are laid in the life of the family. 
Selfish and militant parents impose their views 
on the growing children who carry the view into 
practice. Conversely, altruistic and societary 
minded parents fortunately have the power of 
giving a regard for the rights of fellow beings, 
an interest in social evolution and the future of 
mankind, a love of justice in its larger sense, 
that will truly contribute to building a better 
world. 

4. The Family in Relation to Parents 

So far the family has been viewed as an insti- 
tution existing for the physical and social repro- 
duction of human beings, with some attention 
having been paid to its relation to the larger 
societary world. When considered relative to the 



#6 The Family and Society 

working of the larger economy of the biological 
and sociological fields, the family institution un- 
doubtedly bears the aspect of being chiefly a 
reproductive agency. But when the subjective 
rather than the functional aspect is attended to 
other factors come to light. For mating and 
marriage never would have taken place among 
higher forms of life had not the sex instinct 
resided in the pairing organisms. The instinct 
to mate carries with it the pain and pleasure 
inherent to the most intense form of desire within 
the bounds of knowledge. The satisfaction of 
that desire must be regarded as the strongest 
and most influential of all the social forces. It 
has produced not only great individual efforts 
but has spurred into the fight masses of men 
who otherwise would have remained inert. 

Again, there is some justification for saying 
that the parents have certain rights in the family. 
Fortunately, among civilized men the time is past 
when the doctrine that the end of mankind is to 
multiply and replenish the earth, that child bear- 
ing is the sole object of woman's existence, is 
regarded as sacred. When that teaching pre- 
vailed the wife had little respite during the 
reproductive period and she was aged and worn 
out by the time its end was reached. While 
many parents need to be taught their larger 



Functions of the Family 27 

responsibilities for their children the average 
parent does not desire to shirk the parental 
duties and most parents wear themselves out by 
the use of wrong and backward methods of 
training and discipline. The adoption of en- 
lightened methods would reduce the arduousness 
of rearing a family. The right of parents to 
some leisure and to some relief from the inces- 
sant care of children needs to accompany the 
insistence on the performance of their full re- 
sponsibilities. Perhaps this right will not be re- 
alized until the community makes child life safe 
by means of play associations so that children 
may be permitted to leave the confines of the 
home at times. Spencer makes the profound gen- 
eralization that " in proportion as organisms be- 
come higher they are individually less sacrificed 
to the maintenance of the species ; and the impli- 
cation is that in the highest type of man this 
sacrifice falls to the minimum." He further 
points out how this decreasing subordination of 
parents to the species is brought about. " First, 
by the elongation of that period which precedes 
reproduction; second, by decrease in the num- 
ber of offspring borne, as well as by increase of 
the pleasures taken in the care of them; and 
third, by lengthening of the life which follows 
cessation of reproduction." This has been the 



28 The Family and Society 

tendency during the whole course of animal and 
human evolution. Doubtless something remains 
to be accomplished toward increasing the pleas- 
ures of parents in child rearing. 

The right to be taken care of when they are 
aged and worn is a right of parents. Society 
has moved forward tremendously in this since 
savage times. Old men and women then were 
cast aside by neglect, or because sustenance was 
difficult to secure the policy was forced on primi- 
tive groups of abandoning or putting to death 
old people. Among certain African people the 
father would ask the favorite son to end his 
days, since the miseries incident to old age were 
too great to bear. That there is need for en- 
forcing on the minds of the young their duties 
toward making the last days of their parents 
comfortable and of administering cheer to them 
then is observed from the fact that many parents 
are allowed to become paupers whose children 
are well able to support them. It is noticed that 
there is a great difference among immigrant na- 
tionalities in the United States in this respect, 
certain nationalities showing little affection for 
their old people and being quite willing that the 
state should assume their support. By means of 
old age pensions the state now promises to 



Functions cf the Family 29 

ameliorate the conditions under which the de- 
clining days of its old workers are spent. 

5. Summary 

Summarizing this chapter we are enabled to 
recall the following ideas. Since the family is 
a social institution it should produce those re- 
sults for which its peculiar nature calls. It is 
found by experience that the monogamic family 
is the best agency to renew society by the con- 
stant creation of new physical members. It con- 
serves childhood, averts close inbreeding, avoids 
venereal diseases which promiscuity brings, and 
thus begets a good physical stock. The family 
promotes national life by securing a settled life 
and by yielding a growing population. 

In addition to reproducing society physically, 
the family reproduces society spiritually by so- 
cializing the young. Social beings are not born, 
they are developed. The old philosophical puz- 
zle, Why are men's minds alike? receives its 
answer in the simple teaching that from ini- 
tial society parents have absorbed the ideas 
of society at large, have conveyed them to 
the minds, and impressed them on the children. 
Since the principles at the basis of the family 
and of society generally are much the same, 
training in the home lays the foundation for 



SO The Family and Society 

participating in and understanding the larger 
world. Thus, where the family is not abnormal 
or backward, we find in the home a division of 
labor, the various economic activities, the begin- 
nings and rudiments of government, of educa- 
tion, and the inculcation of morals, and love of 
order and beauty. 

If the family prepares for society generally, 
it might be supposed that it profoundly affects 
society. It does this in making good or bad 
citizens. In another way it affects social prog- 
ress, in so far as it produces men and women of 
achievement. But for the most part the family, 
like the church, is a conserving, rather than a 
dynamic, institution. 

It is a mistake to suppose that the family is 
an independent, self-sufficing institution, because 
it is related to society in general in so many 
obvious ways, and because the progress of a 
hundred years would be destroyed did one re- 
vert to the condition of independent families. 
Neither is the family the social unit in any ex- 
clusive sense. ' It is one among a number of 
social units. For most scientific purposes the 
individual serves as the social unit. 
> The family is an asylum for the man and 
' woman who have married where a division of 
labor between them obtains, and where ministra- 



Functions of the Family 31 

tions of affection and companionship occur. 
While they, as parents, have a large measure 
of responsibility and duties relative to their off- 
spring, they also have rights as parents and as 
human beings. They are morally bound to suc- 
cor and train their children. On the other hand, 
the offspring are morally bound to succor and 
care for the parents in their years of decline. 



CHAPTER II 

Origin of Marriage 

MARRIAGE is commonly regarded as the 
form or convention by which a man and 
woman are made husband and wife. Because, 
however, this ceremony, or some such more or 
less formal act, initiates a relationship between 
the two parties which continues for a longer or 
shorter time, and that most often brings to the 
pair dependent offspring, the term marriage is 
frequently used to cover the matrimonial insti- 
tution. But since the pairing of male and fe- 
male for purposes of reproduction might not 
result in what we today think of as the family, 
and which, nevertheless, actually leads up to or 
initiates the family, it is proper to avoid the use 
of the latter term and employ that of marriage 
in discussing the origin of the marital institu- 
tion. 

It will doubtless prove useful to give the term 
marriage a somewhat concise meaning, otherwise 
the impossibility of definitely locating the origin 
of the institution is obvious. It immediately be- 
comes evident that we cannot transfer our mod- 
ern meaning back to primitive times. Should 

32 



Origin of Marriage 33 

we do so we would be embarrassed by the dis- 
covery of many marital forms which could not 
be embraced in, or would be incongruous with, 
our conception. Our conception w 7 ould be too 
rich and manifold in its elements to fit the nar- 
row situation. This is generally true in the hunt 
for origins. In treating the evolution of re- 
ligion it has been found necessary to define re- 
ligion in the simplest terms, to strip off the rich 
efflorescence of later times, so that the definition 
may serve to describe and designate the highest, 
most developed form of religion, as well as the 
lowest and poorest. In that case and in the pres- 
ent one it is necessary to find the irreducible 
minimum, to reduce our conception to its lowest 
terms. 

Westermarck says that most of the definitions 
which are given of marriage are of a juridical 
or ethical nature, "comprehending either what 
is required to make the union legal, or what, in 
the eye of an idealist, the union ought to be." 
Evidently such definitions are unfit for our pres- 
ent purpose. The writer mentioned has given 
what is perhaps the simplest definition, one on 
which it would be difficult to improve. He says : 
"From a scientific point of view T , I think there 
is but one definition which may claim to be gen- 
erally admitted, that, namely, according to which 



34 The Family and Society 

marriage is nothing else than a more or less dur- 
able connection between male and female, last- 
ing beyond the mere act of propagation till 
after the birth of the offspring." This is wide 
enough to include all sex relations which may be 
called marriage, and narrow enough to exclude 
merely promiscuous relations. Because of its 
adequacy this meaning will be employed. 

1. Marriage Among Animals 

The problem of the origin of marriage con- 
cerns itself not alone with the history of matri- 
monial institutions among men. At least the 
treatment accorded it by numerous writers would 
indicate this. Herbert Spencer, Letourneau, 
Westermarck, Howard, and others begin their 
studies of marriage by a survey of sex relations 
in the animal series below man. It is conceived 
that the biological conditions out of which human 
institutions arose are rooted in the evolving ani- 
mal world. Further, it is thought that the be- 
ginnings of the human institution of marriage 
might be discovered there. The first supposition 
is doubtless well founded. Man has so many ap- 
petites, instincts, mental traits, and bodily struc- 
tures that are also common to animals, and which 
are explicable only by supposing that the former 
grew out of the latter, that we should expect 



Origin of Marriage 35 

to find the biological conditions which regulate 
sex matters coming down to us from the past. 
The latter supposition does not rest on the same 
necessity. For marriage is much more likely to 
be a social arrangement, an affair into which 
the element of rational agreement enters to a 
considerable extent. Consequently, there is far 
less probability that it occurs among animals 
than that the biological conditions regulating 
sex matters among men arose there and have con- 
tinued to operate with something of their for- 
mer force. 

Westermarck has amply proved that pairing 
of a somewhat permanent nature frequently oc- 
curs among birds and beasts. Among birds 
especially, the bond between male and female dur- 
ing the "mating season" is so strong and un- 
disturbed by infidelity that a certain writer re- 
marks that the only genuine marriage is found 
among them. In the lowest form of life par- 
entage is unknown, sex not having appeared. 
When it does arise the early parents are not con- 
cerned with the offspring. Eventually, however, 
the mother develops solicitude for the young, 
and with the extension of the span of life and 
also of infancy of the young, this maternal at- 
tention increases. Occasionally the male parent 
of a species exhibits some consideration for the 



36 The Family and Society 

offspring by participating in feeding and caring 
for it. More frequently the mother fights the 
family battle alone. 

Did it suffice to consider that one parent in 
charge of the offspring constituted the family, 
there could be no question but that that insti- 
tution begins among animals. But the continu- 
ance of the male with the female until after the 
young are born, except among birds, is rather 
exceptional. It is notorious tKat among our 
domestic animals the mother alone cares for the 
offspring. The function of the male is com- 
pleted in the process of fertilization. As we 
defined marriage, that institution exists only in 
exceptional cases among animals exclusive of the 
anthropoidea and birds. 

Relative to birds, while it must be said that 
they show an almost universal seasonal pairing, 
a fidelity lasting from nesting, or nest-building, 
to the flying of the fledglings, the fact is rather 
inconsequential for the question of human mar- 
riage. Men did not descend from birds. Conse- 
quently anything birds practiced could have had 
but very slight influence on human action. Men 
may have imitated birds in certain particulars, 
as ethnology shows, but those imitations ex- 
hausted themselves on matters of decoration and 
armor. The matrimonial institution is too fun- 



Origin of Marriage 37 

damental a social affair to be much subject to 
imitation of bird practice. In default of a bio- 
logical and a sociological continuity between 
men and birds it is obvious that the pairing of 
birds is irrelevant to the question of human mar- 
riage. 

The question of the life and practices of the 
apes is far more important. Man is not a direct 
descendant of the apes but rather from a stock 
of animals which sprung from a stem common 
to human beings and the apes. The practices of 
this ancestral stock were doubtless closely akin 
to those of the apes. Consequently the life of 
apes reflects that of man's pre-human ancestors. 
Darwin believed that apes led a social life. Bed- 
dard states that baboons "live in herds," and 
recent African hunters describe the human-like 
antics and collective actions of these creatures. 
Beddard says of the gorilla that it " goes about 
in families, with but one adult male, who later 
has to dispute his position as leader of the band 
with another male, whom he kills or drives away, 
or by whom he is killed or driven away. The 
animal is said to make a nest in a tree like the 
orang, but this statement has been questioned." 
(Mammalia, pp. 566 and 576.) Flower and 
Lydekker also affirm that the gorilla "lives in 
family parties." It is far more f rugivorous than 



38 The Family and Society 

the orang, which shows a strong liking for ani- 
mal food. It is evident that the gibbon lives in 
packs, from the fact that in making its double, 
human-like call, which is one of the most common 
forest sounds, "several join in the cry, like 
hounds giving the tongue." This animal is 
largely vegetarian, though it is fond of spiders, 
insects, bird's eggs, and even birds themselves. 
As to the chimpanzees, they "are essentially 
forest dwellers, and are more arboreal in their 
habits than the gorilla. They live either in 
families, or in small parties of several families. 
Frequently, at least, they construct a kind of 
nest in the trees as a sleeping place; the male 
being said to sleep on a forked branch below the 
level of this nest." (Flower and Lydekker, 
Mammals, Living and Extinct, pp. 730-736.) 

Westermarck reviews evidence gleaned from 
the works of several observers relative to the 
gorilla, orang-outang, and chimpanzee, and con- 
cludes that for most part they lead a solitary 
life, existing in small groups with a male at the 
head, in pairs, or sometimes wandering alone. 
He further finds that they have a rutting, or 
pairing, season, at which time the males battle 
with each other for supremacy. He holds the 
belief, too confidently I think, in view of the 



Origin of Marriage 39 

slender evidence, that simple pairing, or monog- 
amy, obtains among them. Letoumeau, on the 
other hand, thinks that apes are often gregari- 
ous and sometimes monogamous, sometimes po- 
ly gynous,* more often the latter. The logic of 
the whole situation recommends his position as 
the correct one. 

Among the lower forms of life there is one 
interesting fact for a sociological study of the 
family. While the family instinct is widespread 
among animals, among ants, bees, and termites 
it has apparently been distributed over the whole 
group. There is no family among those groups. 
The queen is fertilized by one or more of the 
drones, who then die or are dispatched. The 
queen is a mere egg producer. The mothering 
of the young is performed by the workers, who 
are neither fathers nor mothers, but who yet 
possess a nursing instinct and a group altruism 
which are effective. In these cases a complicated 
social organism exists without a family institu- 
tion. Hence, here at least, the family is not the 
social unit. 

*In this volume polygyny and polygynous are used 
instead of the popular terms polygamy and polygamous. 
According to the meaning of the original roots from 
which the words are derived, gama means marriage while 
gynos means woman. Hence polygamy denotes pluralistic 
marriage while polygyny signifies plural wives. — Editor. 



40 The Family and Society 

%. The Earliest Human Sex Relation 

When we ascend to the human stage of evolu- 
tion a most complicated situation exists relative 
to marriage. First, it is difficult to ascertain 
the exact family conditions of primitive men 
who now exist or have recently existed. Sec- 
ond, how much force toward settling the ques- 
tion of earliest human marriage shall be ac- 
corded to the scant beginnings of marriage 
among man's animal ancestors? This second 
question is complicated by the fact that a great 
gulf exists between present primitive man and 
the highest existing animal species. Prehistoric 
man, man from his origin up to the stage of cul- 
ture represented by present primitive man, fills, 
by a rough estimate, a period of time amounting 
to 450,000 years. Beyond the first prehistoric 
man extends another extensive period until man's 
animal ancestors, the cousins of the anthropoid 
apes, are reached. 

Many theories have been developed as to the 
relation of the sexes among primitive men. First, 
the theory of promiscuity, the belief that males 
and females paired temporarily and without re- 
gard to relations of kinship. Second, the patri- 
archal theory, the doctrine which holds that the 
primordial group consisted of the eldest valid 
male parent, all agnatic descendants and adopted 






Origin of Marriage 41 

persons, together with slaves, clients, and other 
dependents, organized under the despotic au- 
thority of the eldest male, the patriarch. Third, 
the theory of original monogamy. Fourth, the 
theory that various forms of marriage existed 
from the first, with monogamy the predominant 
form. Fifth, the theory that the various kinds 
of marriage groups — polyandric, polygynic, 
and monogamic — appeared from the beginning, 
according to circumstances, but that monogamy 
was rather the exception. Bachofen, Morgan, 
Lubbock, Engles, and others have defended the 
first theory; Maine and his school, the second; 
probably the majority of civilized people have 
held the third; Letourneau, Westermarck, and 
others, the fourth; Herbert Spencer holds the 
fifth for present primitive men, with suggestions 
of prior promiscuity. 

Our concern just now is as to whether any 
form of marriage existed at first, or whether the 
condition of sexual promiscuity prevailed among 
primitive men. In the nature of the case only 
the larger aspects of the problem can be con- 
sidered in this small volume. 

To settle the question it has been necessary to 
compile the facts from the works of first hand ob- 
servers of practically all existing primitive peo- 
ples. This has been done by Spencer, Letour- 



42 The Family and Society 

neau, and later by Westermarck. Competent stu- 
dents of the subject generally concede that these 
and other authorities have demonstrated that 
there is no such thing as a general stage of pro- 
miscuity among the primitive groups visited and 
studied by civilized man. Herbert Spencer, how- 
ever, intimates that the loose and easy marital 
and sex relations among those groups indicate 
a prior stage of promiscuity. In this latter 
opinion the American Morgan coincides, but for 
a different reason. Letourneau, at times, shows 
symptoms of believing in primordial promis- 
cuity. 

The situation as far back in social evolution 
as we have actual evidence concerning sex re- 
lations appears to be this : Primitive society, as 
we know it, is characterized by a pluralistic form 
of marriage, polyandric in some cases, poly- 
gynic in others, sometimes both polyandric and 
polygynic, with the frequent occurrence of 
monogamy. 

What shall be said of the long interim of 
probably hundreds of thousands of years which 
stretch beyond our primitive man to the original 
human beings? Archeology has demonstrated 
that there were still lower culture stages than 
that possessed by present primitive men, and 
it has discovered two or more lower levels of men 



Origin of Marriage 43 

in physical type. It is apparent that Wester- 1 
marck's evidence does not touch this period, save 
in so far as his generalizations from animal life 
may obtain. But as we saw, the evidence as to 
what actually the sex relations among apes are 
is too meager to establish anything to a cer- 
tainty. Further, we cannot know what effect 
developing reason and the entrance of other 
factors would have on marital relations in the 
subsequent beings. 

Let us consider the various possibilities and 
factors in the situation. First, the bearing of 
the idea of continuity. We might expect an evo- 
lution toward some kind of marriage, should we 
follow the analogy of the development of other 
social institutions and of mental and bodily 
structures. We find animal bodily structures far 
more similar than dis-similar to those of man. 
Although but few of the "missing links" have 
been discovered, we hold to continuity of physi- 
cal forms. Similarly animals possess most of 
man's instincts, the special sensory apparatus, 
sensations, perceptions, and a degree of general- 
izing and reasoning power. We believe in a 
mental continuity. Animals have a language of 
signs and sounds. Primitive man possesses these 
in a higher degree of development. Linguistic 
continuity is most probable. If we find some 



44 The Family and Society 

beginnings of marriage among the animals which 
most approximate man it would be natural to 
suppose that further evolution has occurred dur- 
ing the development of the series. Great marital 
development during that interim should not be 
expected, however, because the changes, at that 
stage of evolution, in relations between individ- 
uals was necessarily slow, as we know from a 
study of social phenomena among both animals 
and men. In fact it is conceivable that condi- 
tions arose which blocked actual progress and 
even compelled regression. For example, the 
rational factor grew stronger. What would be 
its effect on a marriage that was based on in- 
stinct exclusively? Would it increase the male's 
tendency toward maintaining a marital horde? 
Or would it lead the male in the direction of a 
solitary life in which he could exercise his cun- 
ning and strength in hunting and fighting? 

Second, the question as to whether apes were 
solitary or gregarious and its bearing on the 
nature of the sex relations. Our previous treat- 
ment of this established a strong probability of 
dominant gregariousness and of polygynous 
grouping. 

Third, infancy is prolonged among the an- 
thropoids and doubtless still more prolonged 
among the first men. This prolongation of in- 



Origin of Marriage 45 

fancy imposes a prolongation of parental care. 
In itself, however, it does not pronounce that 
this increased attention is paternal in part. 
Other considerations are required to decide that. 
A smaller number of offspring and an increase 
of their dependence accompanies the prolonga- 
tion of infancy, making it probable that the 
mother would at times be the center of a group 
of growing children. The force of this con- 
dition is in the direction of a family, or horde, 
life. 

Fourth, evolution from the animal to the hu- 
man stage brings not only the erect attitude 
of body but its more important accompaniment, 
a heightened and enlarged psychical life. It is 
impossible to say what the exact effects of this 
enlarged psychical life would be on sex relations, 
but certain results are probable. The growth 
of rational power made early man superior to 
the animals. He could operate against them, 
lay snares and traps for them, use weapons to 
overcome them. This undoubtedly had much to 
do with changing early man or his near ancestors 
from a frugivorous to a carnivorous diet. In 
this connection woman would be rendered more 
dependent. So long as she could forage for 
food she could support herself and her depend- 
ent offspring. But where the inhabitants of a 



46 The Family and Society 

region became numerous and the larger part of 
the food had to be obtained by the chase, she 
was incapacitated for this during the period of 
rearing and nursing the child. Had not males 
become capable of developing a somewhat perma- 
nent attachment for the female and offspring 
she and her children in many cases would perish. 
The only alternative to this would be the ex- 
istence of a relatively large communal group of 
which the mother constituted a member and re- 
ceived her support at critical times. But this 
also supposes a group attachment on the part 
of the males, an outcome in turn of the larger 
psychical nature. 

A strengthening of the psychical attribute 
of jealousy in the males might be conceived 
to take place with evolution. Since the time of 
Darwin the " law of battle " has been recognized 
as obtaining among the males of the more highly 
developed animals. Fighting for females at 
pairing time quite generally obtains. The man- 
like apes enter into conflict for the mastery of 
females. Psychologically it is true that dur- 
ing the process of marital evolution the emo- 
tional life has been broadened and deepened. 
Civilized man not only experiences more emo- 
tions but is able to respond to any one of them 
more profoundly than undeveloped men. The 



Origin of Marriage 47 

emotional reaction we call jealousy comes under 
this general rule. Jealousy developed among 
animals with the evolution of higher forms, and 
it likely grew apace during the ascent from apes 
to man. Had early men an annual pairing sea- 
son, as Westermarck believes, this jealousy would 
operate only on those occasions, as in the case 
of animals. Did men then live in isolation, males 
and females would separate immediately after 
pairing, for the interim between seasons would 
be too long for sex jealousy to span. Only 
the disappearance of the pairing season, the es- 
tablishment of ties between the male and off- 
spring, or the discovery of cooperative advan- 
tages of group life could obviate the tendency 
to fall apart. Separation of sexes would spell 
promiscuity. Segregation would mean some kind 
of marriage. 

Fifth, Westermarck supposes that close in- 
breeding and the " horror of incest " which arose 
consequent to it in primitive times were prohib- 
itive of promiscuity. He offers a wide array of 
evidence to show that primitive people generally 
have a horror of incest. There are exceptions, 
and some of his evidence is contradicted by com- 
petent observers. The sexual saturnalias that 
primitive men periodically indulged in without 
respect to kinship ties creates a presumption as 



48 The Family and Society 

to its weakness. That it is an instinct which 
became established early in the history of man 
by natural selection, as he maintains, does not 
appear to be true. It would not be necessary, 
save on the narrow pairing basis on which he in- 
sists and the existence of which is questionable. 
Moreover, it does not appear to be an instinct, 
as many modern experiences show. Not only 
have near relatives often married consciously, 
but at times unconsciously of the nearness of 
kinship ties. Incest is of frequent occurrence. 
The Chicago Vice Commission report gives start- 
ling facts of its frequency in producing vice. 
These things could not occur were there a pro- 
hibitive instinct. Like many other ideas, even 
the idea of deity, incest is an idea that is im- 
bedded in the family stock of ideas and impressed 
on the minds of the young by the parental gen- 
eration. Originally it may have grown out of 
religious tabus, reinforced by the fact that fa- 
miliar sexual associates possess a minimum of 
sex attraction. 

Whatever the exact nature of the origin of 
the inhibitory idea against incest this statement 
of Letourneau's appears to represent the truth: 
"It is quite certain . . . that during the first 
ages of the evolution of societies the ties of kin- 
ship, even those we are accustomed to regard as 



Origin of Marriage 49 

sacred and respect for which seem to be incarnate 
in us, have not been any impediment to sexual 
unions. Like the sentiment of modesty, the 
horror of incest has only been engraved on the 
human conscience with great difficulty and by 
long culture. Samples of this kind are un- 
known to the animals, and before they could 
arise in the human brain it was first necessary 
that the family should be constituted, and then 
that from some motive or other the custom of 
exogamous marriage should be adopted." 

The statement that the effects of close in- 
breeding would have a prohibitive force on pro- 
miscuity deserves more consideration than we 
can give. A review of the evidences as to the 
exact effects of breeding in and in would require 
many pages. Westermarck's extensive consid- 
eration of the facts gleaned from many inves- 
tigators serves to show that the poorer strength 
and fertility of the offspring of closely related 
pairs are likely to show deterioration, though the 
effects are not uniform. Consequently, in the 
development of mankind, natural selection oper- 
ated toward eliminating those groups of men 
who in-breed and the selecting of those which 
practiced exogamy, with the result that even- 
tually a " powerful instinct " or aversion to mar- 
riage with relatives was established. 



50 The Family and Society 

J. Arthur Thomson, in his Heredity, throws 
some doubt on such a hard and fast conclusion. 
He quotes G. H. Darwin as saying: "Biolog- 
ically it seems certain that close interbreeding 
can go far without affecting physique, and that 
it is useful in fixing character." Thomson says : 
"The idea that there can be any objection to 
the marriage of two healthy cousins who happen 
to fall in love is preposterous." He gives in- 
stances of frequent inbreeding in the production 
of superior stocks of cattle. However, it must 
not be supposed that Thomson is an advocate 
of close inbreeding. Moreover, some of the his- 
torical examples of human inbreeding without 
serious results which he cites had previously been 
fairly disposed of by Westermarck. We may 
fairly conclude, I think, that continuous promis- 
cuity practiced within a small group of primi- 
tive men would have caused deterioration of the 
stock, which in contact with the cross-breeding 
stocks, would ultimately disappear.* 

Sixth, the principle of parallelism may have 
some application to the original human sex- 

*On Mendelian principles the reason why outbreeding 
is better than inbreeding is that it scatters and hence 
covers defects instead of combining and heightening 
them as is done in inbreeding (see Walter, Genetics, 
pp. 242-3). 



Origin of Marriage 51 

relation. As obtaining in other primitive mat- 
ters it means that because of men's unitary 
origin they possess similar physical and mental 
characteristics. Consequently, when migrations 
had taken place and race stocks had been estab- 
lished in widely separated regions, similar ar- 
tifacts and institutions appeared. The stone 
implements of Europe and America resemble 
each other in form, though there are differences 
of detail. Magic and tabus have occurred every- 
where, though the particulars of their practice 
varied from place to place. Therefore we might 
expect that the similar sex instinct would work 
out some form of marriage, but that the institu- 
tion would exhibit itself differently in various 
regions. While promiscuity may have occurred 
in places, the conflict of group with group, and 
the battles of males for leadership in groups of 
females, as well as the premium which natural 
selection placed on out-breeding stocks, militated 
against the establishment of a universal stage of 
sexual promiscuity. 

3. The Belief in Promiscuity 

How, then, did the belief in promiscuity as 
an original factor in the history of the family 
arise if it has never been general? Several dif- 
ferent theories have been invented to substantiate 



52 The Family and Society 

promiscuity, but the practices of present primi- 
tive men have chiefly given rise to the belief. 
Temporary unions, marriages for a term, partial 
marriages which are pecuniary transactions and 
good for only certain days of the week, corro- 
borees and sexual saturnalia in which restraints 
are abandoned and free license prevails, wife 
lending so widely practiced, the result of 
viewing the female as property of the male, 
and group marriages, are some of the facts which 
have impressed travelers and led them to conclude 
that such peoples are without marital institu- 
tions. The group marriage which obtains among 
certain tribes of Australia, in which a man has 
a first wife and other secondary wives, and the 
wife has a chief husband and several potential 
husbands, all of which is regulated by tribal 
custom, until understood, presented the appear- 
ance of promiscuity. But carefully conducted 
investigations among primitive peoples have 
uniformly shown that some form of marital reg- 
ulation obtains, although considerable license 
may exist. Westermarck* is convinced, however, 
that a lack of chastity and the practice of license 
did not obtain originally, but has been introduced 
by the.presence and contact of civilized men. 

Marriage, like other institutions in the be- 
ginning, was stumbled into by primitive men. 



Origin of Marriage 53 

As Letourneau safely says : " Every possible 
experiment, compatible with the duration of sav- 
age or barbarous societies, has been tried, or is 
still practiced, amongst various races.' 5 Society 
conducted an experiment as to how to incubate 
new social members successfully. The ancient 
animal method would not suffice for the more 
complicated life. The lengthened infancy and 
dependence of the young constituted nature's 
suggestion that a parental laboratory was re- 
quired. The new economic requirements in rela- 
tion to a changed food supply demanded a de- 
pendence of women at critical times, and division 
of labor between males and females in group 
matters. A heightening psychical ability en- 
larged the social capacity of the male and made 
him more available for family purposes. The 
operation of natural selection in weeding out 
the groups which practiced close inbreeding still 
further militated against promiscuity and ad- 
vanced the chances of the family. All of these 
factors organized about that of sexual instinct, 
so far as we are able to approximate, account 
for the origin of human marriage. 



CHAPTER III 

The Evolution of the Family 

UPON an evolutionary basis it is quite natural 
to suppose that the family grew out of a 
primal stage of promiscuity, and that it ascended 
through successive stages of polygyny, poly- 
andry, and monogamy to its present status. 
Theoretically this would constitute a perfect and 
logical scheme. Unfortunately for the theory 
the facts bearing on the development of the do- 
mestic institutions do not permit us to follow 
any such easy path. The course of the family 
has been tortuous, and the form which it has 
taken at any given time and place has evidently 
been determined by a great many circumstances. 
The family, like other institutions, has had to ad- 
just itself to varied conditions, and what it is 
at any point of time has been determined by the 
forces and conditions at work in the society of 
the period. It is an institution which has been 
subjected to the vicissitudes of ignorance, war, 
economic changes, religious and political ideas 
and factors, and the passions and ideals of hu- 
man beings. It has always been a product of 

54 



Evolution of the Family 55 

the factors of its age. Being a man-made or a 
society-made affair, it is subject to improvement 
and is an object with which the best intelligence 
and idealism of the age may well busy them- 
selves. 

1. Types of Families 

The following forms of marriage have been 
developed in the course of human history: 
Monogamy, or the pairing of one man with one 
woman for more than a temporary lapse of 
time. Polygyny, the state of marriage in which 
one man possesses two or more wives or concu- 
bines. Polyandry, the form of marriage in which 
one woman is held as common wife by two or 
more men. Group marriage, two or more forms 
of which exist, one in which several brothers 
are married to several sisters, all* the brothers 
being the husbands of all the sisters, and all the 
sisters wives of all the brothers ; the other in 
which either all the husbands may be brothers, 
or all the wives may be sisters. Besides the above 
kinds of marriage, there are time and trial mar- 
riages. These are not exclusive of the forms 
monogamy, polygyny, and polyandry, but may 
occur with either form. Thus, it may be a 
custom among a primitive people that a man and 
woman shall live together as man and wife for 



56 The Family and Society 

a fixed time, then separate; or that they may 
be husband or wife only on certain days of the 
week, sustaining to others those relationships 
on the other days. This is time or term mar- 
riage, and may take place under a monogamous 
or polygynous system. Or it may be the cus- 
tom that fertility is regarded as the test of a 
valid marriage. In this case the pair separate 
as man and wife in case children do not result 
at the end of a year or a few years. This form 
may also operate in the case of either polygyny 
or monogamy; possibly also in that of poly- 
andry. Time and trial marriages are what have 
been termed lax or brittle monogamy. That is, 
they are more likely to be the accompaniment 
of monogamy and enable it to pass as an eas} r 
or bearable substitute for polygyny. 

8. Occurrence of the Forms of the Family 

The prevalence of the forms of the family 
may be considered relative to time, or the vari- 
ous stages of social evolution, and at any given 
time, especially the present. The present dis- 
tribution will receive treatment first. 

One form of group marriage, punaluan, for- 
merly existed in the Hawaiian Islands, and is 
found among the Todas of India today. This 



Evolution of the Family 57 

is the marriage of a group of brothers to a 
group of sisters, each sister being the wife of 
all the brothers, and each brother the husband 
of all the sisters. The larger form of group 
marriage is to be found among the aborigines 
of Australia. In some of the tribes, men from 
certain groups of kinsmen may marry only with 
women from certain other kinship groups. The- 
oretically, each man is the husband of all the 
women and each woman the wife of all the men 
of the marriageable groups. In reality, each man 
has what may be called a first or real wife with 
whom he permanently abides. The other women 
are potential wives with whom he may cohabit 
under certain circumstances. The same situation 
is true for the women. 

Polygyny has been aijd is a widespread form 
of marriage. It flourishes over large portions 
of native Africa, was practiced by many of the 
native tribes of America, obtains generally 
among all Mohammedan peoples, among Jews 
of Mohammedan countries, exists in various 
islands of Oceania, and is widespread among 
many peoples of Asia. It is impossible to state 
what portion of the human race practices 
polygyny, both because accurate statistics of 
populations of all its votaries does not exist, 
and because even where it is sanctioned by a 



58 The Family and Society 

people it is in most cases impossible that more 
than a small part of the male population is able 
to support more than one wife. It is general 
among certain West African negro tribes, peo- 
ples living in what Dowd calls the banana zone. 
Women are more numerous than men and little 
capital is required to undertake the initial ex- 
penses of housekeeping. The women perform 
the labor, hence they are self-supporting. 
Scarcity of women and the expense attached 
to maintaining a number of wives militate 
against the universality of the institution even 
where it is sanctioned by custom. In India 95 
per cent of the Mohammedan population are 
monogamous by necessity or conviction, while 
in Persia but 2 per cent practice polygyny. 
In Africa, in ascending through the successively 
higher economic zones, polygyny decreases by 
reason of the greater equality between the num- 
bers of the sexes, the growing cost of domestic 
establishments, the increasing independence of 
women, and the heightened ideals of life. 

Polyandry is relatively rare. It is confined 
to a few tribes and peoples of North America, 
a smaller number in South Africa, certain islands 
and peoples of Oceania, a few peoples of Africa 
and Madagascar, and quite a large number of 
peoples of Eastern and South Eastern Asia. 



Evolution of the Family 59 

Tibet is the great home of polyandry. In most 
cases of polyandry the husbands are brothers. 
It is a universal practice among but a few peo- 
ples. It commonly occurs along with other forms 
of marriage and may be practiced by all classes 
of persons. Among the Khasias of Asia it 
prevails among the poor and is said to be used 
to facilitate divorce. In other places it is prac- 
ticed by the wealthy. 

It is evident from what has been said that at 
the present time monogamy constitutes the domi- 
nant form of marriage, at least conventionally. 
It is even possible that it is ra^in3mxrit~was~ih 
earlier days of mankind, and high authorities 
contend that immorality and sex-irregularity are 
more widespread among mankind now than ever 
before. As in various other matters relative to 
marriage the scientific position is to refrain from 
dogmatism. 

When we seek to establish the occurrence of 
the various forms of marriage along with definite 
stages in social evolution the task is found to be 
fairly difficult. Spencer gave his attentive 
genius to the question. To his first question: 
"Do societies of different degrees of composi- 
tion habitually present different forms of domes- 
tic arrangement?" he replied that no definite 
relationship could be traced because monogamy, 



60 The Family and Society 

P°lygy n y> an d polyandry occur in practically 
every stage of social composition from the low- 
est to the highest. However, in this connection 
one form of relation may be alleged. " Forma- 
tion of compound groups, implying greater co- 
ordination and the strengthening of restraints, 
implies more settled arrangements, public and 
private. Growth of custom into law, which 
goes along with an extending governmental or- 
ganization holding larger masses together, af- 
fects the domestic relations along with the polit- 
ical relations; and thus renders the family ar- 
rangements, be they polyandric, polygynic, or 
monogamic, more definite." 

To his other question: "Are different forms 
of domestic arrangement associated with the mili- 
tant system of organization and the industrial 
system of organization?" he affirmed that a 
general connection could be made out. But we 
must bear in mind that predominant militancy 
"is not so much shown by armies and the con- 
quests they achieve, as by the constancy of their 
predatory activities. The contrast between mili- 
tant and industrial, is properly between a state 
in which life is occupied in conflict with other 
beings, brute and human, and a state in which 
life is occupied in peaceful labor — energies spent 
in destruction instead of energies spent in produc- 



Evolution of the Family 61 

tion. So conceiving militancy, we find polyg- 
yny to be its habitual accompaniment." Several 
lines of evidence of this exist. First, the co- 
existence of industrial development and monog- 
amy among certain peoples, such as the natives 
of Port Dory, New Guinea, the Land Dyaks, 
certain hill tribes of India, the Lepachs, and 
the Iroquois and Pueblos of North America. 
Second, among primitive settled tribes, as in the 
case of those just mentioned, the development 
of chief and chiefly power is small, and the mili- 
tancy is not great. Third, " the polygyny which 
prevails in simply predatory tribes, persists in 
aggregates of them welded together by war into 
small nations under established rulers; and in 
these frequently acquires large extensions." 
Thus, polygyny was marked among the militant 
ruling classes of the Fijians, of the peoples living 
in Ashanti and Dahomey in Africa, the ancient 
Peruvians, Mexicans, Chibchas, and Nicaraguans 
of America, and the old despotisms of the East. 
Fourth, " allied with this evidence is the evidence 
that in a simple tribe all the men of which are 
warriors, polygyny is generally diffused; but 
in a society compounded of such tribes, polyg- 
yny continues to characterize the militant part, 
while monogamy begins to characterize the in- 
dustrial part." Fifth, a direct connection 



62 The Family and Society 

between militancy and polygyny is seen in the 
practice of capturing women as trophies of war 
by warriors and making them additional wives 
and concubines. Further, incessant war leaves 
a surplus of women because the men fall in 
battle. Polygynous peoples have the advantage 
in such warfare of being able more rapidly to 
reproduce warriors. On the other hand, the 
decrease of war and increase of industry equal- 
ize the numbers of the sexes and because every 
man demands a wife, operate against polygyny. 
Sixth, because polygyny means domestic despot- 
ism and monogamy increases voluntary coopera- 
tion in the family 5 the former is congruous with 
a militant social system while the latter naturally 
harmonizes with the industrial form of society. 
(Herbert Spencer, Principles of Sociology, Part 
III, Chapter 9.) 

3. Kinship Systems 

Closely connected with marriage has gone the 
method of tracing descent. L. H. Morgan, the 
American ethnologist, traced several systems 
of kinship. But for our purposes two gen- 
eral systems may be spoken of — the metro- 
nymic or maternal system, and the patronymic 
or paternal system. The metronymic system pre- 
vailed earliest in human society, and seems to have 



Evolution of the Family 63 

been quite or almost a general stage through 
which humanity passed. In this system the chil- 
dren belong to the clan of the mother, are fos- 
tered and cared for by it, and bear the name of 
the maternal group. The father dwells with the 
maternal group but his name is not taken by the 
child. Further, the mother's kinsmen appear to 
exercise the greater authority over the children. 
Some investigators have believed that this sys- 
tem arose during a system of promiscuity, since 
under such a regime it would be impossible to 
identify the father of a child, whereas the iden- 
tity of the mother is always apparent. But as 
we have seen, promiscuity likely has never been 
general and it is necessary to explain the origin 
of the kinship method otherwise. It is obvious 
that animals know nothing of the paternal rela- 
tionship. It is most probable that the earliest 
men know nothing of it. In fact, a recent inves- 
tigator asserts that among certain primitive peo- 
ples of the present time the part the father plays 
in fertilization is not known. The appearance 
of the child is regarded as a matter of magic or 
religion. Under such conditions the father could 
lay no claim to a child and it would follow that it 
would bear the mother's name. Moreover, since 
the woman, because of her child bearing func- 



64 The Family and Society 

tion, is more sedentary, more a fixture in camp 
and locality than man, the offspring in primitive 
times lived with the mother and the community 
life formed about her. It is natural and logical 
that the method of tracing lineage should center 
in her. 

It has been claimed that the existence of the 
maternal system carries with it the idea of the 
supremacy of woman in the social group. 
Westermarck has compiled data to show that 
among primitive peoples living now, the paternal 
system is quite or even more general than the 
maternal. Even if this does not prove that the 
maternal system was never general, which he 
thinks it does prove, it involves much evidence 
that matriarchy — that is government and au- 
thority by women — was never universal. It is 
theoretically easy to assume that since the earli- 
est groups probably formed about woman, she 
therefore exercised control of group matters. 
But it is pointed out that even where the ma- 
ternal system prevails she does not generally 
exercise any great authority. The cases of 
large control by women as among the Iroquois, 
Zuni Indians, etc., are rather exceptional. 

The paternal system is so called because of 
the method of naming children after the father 
and of tracing descent through the main line. It 



Evolution of the Family 65 

is the universal usage among civilized peoples 
and, as has been said, obtains among the larger 
number of present primitive men. It not only 
involves the transfer of names through the male 
line but also that of property. Moreover, it in- 
volves the dominance of man over the wives and 
children, and this sometimes in an exceedingly 
harsh manner and to a very extreme degree. 
The patriarchy was the culmination of it in its 
exaggerated form. This is well pictured in the 
Old Testament accounts of Abraham, Isaac, and 
Jacob, and Sir Henry Maine wrongly believed 
it was the original form of human marriage. 

The causes which operated to -bring about 
the revolutionary transformation from the ma- 
ternal order to the paternal, wherever the change 
has taken place, are numerous. Wife capture, 
which tore the woman away from her kindred 
group and made her a dependent in the group of 
the man, had a decisive effect in that direction. 
War, which by means of military organization 
magnified the power of the male and also brought 
him many human chattels in the shape of women, 
would but build up a system of male inheritance. 
Religion contributed its part by elevating the 
male line through its development of ancestor 
worship, women being too little heroic and spec- 
tacular to serve as deities. Also great would be 



66 The Family and Society 

the influence of the necessity imposed on the 
family group of participating in distant hunt- 
ing expeditions, of going far from home for 
water for the herds, and most of all of passing 
from the hunting to the pastoral stage of life. 
The latter in particular imposed a permanent 
separation of women from their blood group and 
weakened their power. 

1±. Reasons for Various Forms of the Family 

To illustrate the force which social conditions 
exercise on domestic institutions it may be well 
to mention the causes which operated to produce 
the chief forms of the family. And in this 
undertaking only the larger causal conditions 
can be noticed. 

Relative to the least important of the three 
great forms of marriage, polyandry, many dif- 
ferent causes have been assigned. No special 
kind of geographical environment can account 
for it, since it obtains under most diverse cir- 
cumstances. Economic conditions may be con- 
tributive in that the cost of securing and keeping 
a wife in naturally poor countries may be bur- 
densome. But these are likely to operate only 
after the custom is once established. Moreover, 
it is practiced by the wealthy in some places. 
Excess in the number of males because of female 



Evolution of the Family 67 

infanticide, or excess of male births, may play 
a minor part, though, as Spencer remarks, it is 
practiced in Tahiti, where the sexes are probably 
equal. In Kunwar it is said to be assigned to 
the desire to keep the patrimony from being 
distributed among a number of brothers. To 
guard the woman against danger and difficulty 
during the absence of her husband, is an assigned 
cause of minor value. The Shinalese ascribe it 
to the desire to protect the rice fields during 
forced attendance of the people on the king. 
Fraternal affection on the part of the elder 
brother operating to give the younger brothers 
the privilege of a wife has received mention. 
Spencer rejects scarcity of women and poverty 
as sufficient causes and regards polyandry " as 
one of the kinds of marital relations emerging 
from the primitive unregulated state; and one 
which has survived when competing kinds, not 
favored by the conditions, have failed to 
extinguish it." 

While its causes may remain in doubt, polyan- 
dry is a passing system. An advance in indus- 
trial life appears to militate against it. In its 
stronghold, Tibet, the introduction of commerce 
with the consequent accumulation of wealth leads 
to separate establishments on the part of the 
several members of the household. Further it 



68 The Family and Society 

tends to be modified in the direction of 
monogamy, since in the case of brother hus- 
bands the elder brother is the chief or real 
husband, the younger brothers being regarded 
as secondary husbands and are frequently the 
servants of the elder brother. In other cases one 
husband is accounted the real and the others are 
secondary husbands, even servants. It is but a 
step from this conception to a system in which 
there is but a single husband. This principle 
is essentially as that which operates to under- 
mine polygyny. 

The reasons assigned for the occurrence of 
polygyny are more definite. First, polygyny is 
frequently connected with wife capture. In 
Africa many negro tribes make forays on neigh- 
boring peoples to secure women. These become 
concubines or slaves of the men. The reasons 
for this may be numerous. The economic value 
of women as labor units is very large in certain 
regions, especially in west central Africa and on 
the western coast. Also the ability to capture 
women bestows a distinction on the most suc- 
cessful warrior. The marked man is the one 
who has captured or stolen a large number of 
women. Hence numerous women become the 
insignia of rank and honor. The desire for 
novelty together with brutal lust operate 



Evolution of the Family 69 

strongly in the primitive stage to promote 
capture. 

Second, as has been remarked, the economic 
importance of women in primitive society is 
great. Women are easily subordinated in 
slavery, or in a concubinage akin to it where 
these secondary wives perform the bulk of the 
labor. Their defenselessness and their tractable 
nature make them easy prey. Not only is woman 
captured and enslaved but she is purchased out- 
right for that end, either by money or com- 
modities, or by rendering service for a term of 
years, as did Jacob. In New Caledonia chiefs 
have from 5 to SO wives and their wealth and 
authority varies with this ownership. An East- 
ern Central African finds no difficulty in sup- 
porting hundreds of wives, since the more he 
has the richer he is. An American Indian could 
be absolved from the arduousness of hunting 
to support his family whenever he could secure 
as many as five wives. 

Third, at a certain stage of social evolution a 
man's rank and authority is dependent on the size 
of his family. Not only is he rated by the number 
of his wives but by that of his children. More- 
over, his only friends are those of his family, 
and his safety and fighting power are determined 
by the size of his family group. Further, the 



70 The Family and Society 

early marriage and hard labor of the women 
impose small number of births per woman. The 
mortality of children also reduces their number. 
Hence the desire for many children tends to 
promote polygyny. 

Fourth, monogamy imposes continence on a 
man during certain periods of time, namely, dur- 
ing each month, and the period of pregnancy. 
During the latter period it is especially enforced 
among many primitive folk. Continence may be 
compulsory also even until the weaning of the 
child, which takes place late in the child's life 
where people live on rough foods. The grounds 
for these prohibitions may be either hygienic, 
or religious, in the latter case disease being 
ascribed to evil spirits. Escape from the state 
of continence is secured by the multiplication 
of wives. 

Fifth, one of the chief causes of polygyny 
exists in the attractive power of youth and beauty 
upon men. Women age much younger than 
men, especially in primitive conditions when they 
marry and become mothers as early as twelve or 
fourteen, perform the hardest of labor, and 
where suckling the child extends over long 
periods. Early intercourse with the other sex 
is assigned as an additional cause of premature 
aging. 



Evolution of the Family 71 

Sixth, when once the custom of polygyny is 
established and the rich and powerful practice 
it religion throws about it its powerful sanction. 
Indeed a developed religion may specifically pro- 
mote it as in the cases of Mohammedanism and 
Mormonism. Usually, however, religion sanc- 
tions and promotes what has come to be estab- 
lished. The Hebrew religion not only did not 
prohibit polygyny but looked with special favor 
on influential men who practiced it. 

Seventh, the inequality of the sexes may pro- 
mote polygyny. In some cases the women are 
said to outnumber the men several fold. Among 
certain African peoples women are five times 
more numerous than the men, and nearly the 
same divergence occurs elsewhere. However, 
these are exceptional cases. Among some peoples 
this disproportion occurs at the time of birth, 
the females largely exceeding the males in num- 
ber. These also are special cases. Perhaps in- 
cessant war which decimates the males is the 
largest single factor in producing the inequality. 

Certain comparative effects ensue from the 
system of polygyny. First, on family matters ; 
under polygyny, compared with polyandry and 
other lower forms of marriage, the kinship rela- 
tions are rendered more definite, since both the 
father and mother of the offspring are known. 



72 The Family and Society 

Defining the relations undoubtedly strengthens 
the parental, especially the paternal feeling. 
This traceable male descent serves also to give 
more cohesion to the group. On the other hand, 
it is likely that the fraternal feelings are weak- 
ened as compared with polyandry. Polygyny 
commonly engenders intense jealousy among the 
wives of a family, and this in turn is commu- 
nicated to the offspring of each wife. Thus 
the attachment among the half brothers and half 
sisters can but be less than that of full brothers 
and sisters. 

Second, polygyny has certain other effects. 
One is connected with the self-preservation of 
society. If by reason of war and other causes 
females outnumber the males the population is 
enabled to be duly increased by rendering all 
the women of the group fecund by giving each 
a husband. Again if in a militant state the 
prowess of the men determines who shall have 
wives and bear offspring, the stock of the group 
is improved by the reproduction of the superior 
stock. The political stability of a backward 
social group is doubtless enhanced by bestowing 
upon the males the power in society. Religion 
in the form of ancestor worship, along with its 
sanctions, is built up by the establishment of 
descent through the male line. Polygyny has 



^Evolution of the Family 73 

a bearing on the offspring that is superior to 
other lower forms of marriage. Where the 
region is fertile the protection afforded by a 
father is doubtless conducive to their welfare. 
Where the Levirate obtains, the brother of the 
man upon his death adopts his wife and family, 
thus affording protection and preventing child 
mortality. Polygyny may also promote the 
welfare of the adults as compared with lower 
forms of marriage. By attaching all the females 
of the group to a male it guarantees them food 
and protection which otherwise in a primitive 
state they would not have. But unless separated 
in independent houses the state of the wives is 
commonly miserable. Jealousy and strife is in- 
cessant. Because of this the Hebrew term for 
wife is tzarot, which means troubles, adversaries, 
rivals. Higher sex sentiment is strangled by 
viewing wives as chattels and through the very 
numerousness of wives. It is common that among 
savage polygynous peoples there is no manifesta- 
tion of affection between the sexes. Negroes 
have no term for love. Old age, moreover, 
brings its own special penalties under polygyny. 
There is a decided abridgement of life after the 
reproductive period is past. Further, for men 
all through life there is a lack of the comforts 
of domestic affection. 



74 The Family and Society 

The reasons for the establishment and con- 
tinuance of monogamy are almost identical with 
those for the elimination of polygyny. Hence 
a consideration of the former will largely reveal 
the latter. First, the sexes are and always 
have been relatively equal in number. As we 
have seen, in a few exceptional cases the women 
are numerically superior. Generally then injus- 
tice is done a large number of men where 
polygyny prevails and monogamy is the natural 
remedy for that injustice. Whenever enlighten- 
ment develops and democracy takes root, and 
especially wherever the freedom, equality, and 
mutuality of an industrial society displaces the 
arbitrary, despotic, and predatory character of 
a militant one, the institution of marriage re- 
sponds and conventional polygyny goes into dis- 
repute. Because monogamy makes use of the 
equality in the number of the sexes, it is the 
method by which the largest number of family 
groups for the training and rearing of children 
is possible. In so far as the child is the justifi- 
cation of the family this commends monogamy 
as the highest form of marriage. 

Second, the rise of the idea of property in 
woman may have an influence towards monogamy. 
When women have to be purchased rather than 
captured, whether by money or service, they are 



Evolution of the Family 75 

rendered more inaccessible to the average man 
and hence come to have a higher value. Men 
will resent encroachment or invasion of this prop- 
erty right and be less likely to part with a wife 
by an easy divorce method. 

Third, as in polyandry, the preference by 
custom or choice by the wife of one of the 
husbands as the real husband tends to develop 
monogamy, so in polygyny the elevation of one 
wife, either because she is the first or because 
of her beauty, operates in the same direction. 
While under the sway of custom and religious 
sanction, women living under polygyny may and 
do support it, there are overwhelming indica- 
tions that the system runs counter to their 
jealous nature and that it degrades their best 
sex sentiments. Polygyny finds its approval by 
women where they carry all the burdens of out- 
side and inside labor. Under such cases an 
additional wife lessens the work of earlier ones, 
and they may even importune that more wives 
be procured. Yet wide evidence testifies to the 
intense jealousy, rivalry, enmity, and oftentimes 
bickering and fighting that exists among polyg- 
ynous wives. Monogamy relieves the situation 
and satisfies the desire of the wife to be regarded 
as the sole object of marital affection. Says 
Westermarck: "Where women have succeeded 



76 The Family and Society 

in obtaining some power over their husbands, 
or where the altruistic feelings of men have be- 
come refined enough to lead them to respect the 
feelings of those weaker than themselves, mo- 
nogamy is generally considered the only proper 
form of marriage. Among monogamous savage 
or barbarous races the position of woman is 
comparatively good; and the one phenomenon 
must be regarded as partly the cause, partly the 
effect, of the other." 

Fourth, polygyny will be abandoned and 
monogamy advanced in so far as war declines 
and economic conditions generally improve. The 
decline of the first removes a great agency for 
the exploitation of women through capture and 
enslavement. Rising economic conditions tend to 
eliminate women from the external field of labor 
by making it imperative that man shall do the 
work and carry the responsibility. This in turn 
operates among the mass of men to make women 
more independent and less inclined to bear the 
burdens and disadvantages of polygyny. Thus, 
as we ascend through the successive zones of 
Africa — the banana, millet, cattle, and camel — 
we discover an evolution towards monogamy. In 
the first women are cheap and polygyny is gen- 
eral; in the second women are scarcer and 
dearer, men do part of the work, and polygyny 



Evolution of the Family 77 

has decreased; in the third women are much 
scarcer and dearer, men perform most of the 
work, and monogamy obtains for much of the 
population; in the fourth, women are inde- 
pendent and will not put up with polygyny. 

Fifth, many causes bound up with advancing 
civilization, promote the extension of monogamy. 
The development of the mental and moral quali- 
ties refines the passions which unite the sexes, 
makes love less dependent on mere external quali- 
ties, and extends the sympathy between husband 
and wife beyond the decline of youth and beauty. 
The rise of romantic love is relatively a recent 
occurrence. By this the affections are placed 
on but one of the opposite sex, that one is 
clothed with raiments of perfection, and chiv- 
alric loyalty becomes the ideal of married life. 
Though this halo of glory may fade away dur- 
ing married life, it serves as a preparatory 
period in which the substantial and permanent 
characteristics may be discovered, and promotes 
monogamy. Likewise the development of an 
understanding of the conditions of life, of en- 
lightenment and idealism, of a love and loyalty 
for the good of mankind, of an appreciation of 
childhood, and the importance of well trained 
and rightly conditioned offspring for the promo- 
tion of progress serve to create the highest type 



78 The Family and Society 

of family. With the development of the monoga- 
mous family kinship ties are made more definite, 
fraternal affection enhanced, love for parents 
and for offspring intensified and refined, child- 
hood and youth rendered richer and more secure, 
the contents of family life enlarged and deep- 
ened, and the declining and oftentimes dependent 
years of the parents given a security and sweet- 
ness not to be found under other forms. 

5. Development of the Monogamous Family 

While there has been an evolution of mar- 
riage through the various forms, as has been 
seen, within monogamy itself there has been a 
marked change. There is a vast distinction 
between the monogamic family which exists in 
America and that which obtained in early Rome, 
or even in earlier Christendom. The transforma- 
tions that have occurred have to do with woman's 
position in the home, her relation to her husband 
and children in matters of powers and duties, 
her legal rights in property and marital matters, 
and her social outlook and opportunities. 

Rome, which is probably typical of Aryan 
peoples, shows a distinct transformation of the 
family. In its earlier period the extreme patri- 
archal type of family flourished. Ancestor wor- 
ship was the basis of this. The eldest male of 



Evolution of the Family 79 

a large kinship group was the despotic ruler. 
Because he represented the deified ancestors his 
power was only limited by custom and religious 
scruples. Property descended in the male line. 
The patriarch was the priest of the family. He 
might divorce a sterile wife, accept or reject the 
child at birth, choose the husband for his 
daughter, disinherit his son, and put to death 
the wife for adultery. He administered the 
judicial power of the household. The Aryan 
laws of Manu said: "Woman during her in- 
fancy depends upon her father; during her 
youth upon her husband; when her husband is 
dead, upon her sons; if she has no son, on the 
nearest relative of her husband, for a woman 
ought never to govern herself according to her 
own will." This strict patriarchal system held 
sway during the first five or six centuries of 
Roman history. 

But the growth of population, and the devel- 
opment of agriculture, industry, and commerce, 
undermined the primitive patriarchal groups, and 
called for the exercise of powers over social 
matters by a central legislative and adminis- 
trative organization. The council and senate 
assumed many of the powers and duties which 
had been exercised by the patriarch. Ancestor 
worship was undermined by the introduction of 



80 The Family and Society 

nature worship and the appearance of philoso- 
phy. The rights of children were equalized by 
giving the father power to make a will which 
might include all the children, females as well 
as males. Marriage became a private contract 
and the right of divorce extended to women. 
Patriarchal kinship lines were broken by the 
incorporation of inhabitants into cities, and 
families were organized on the non-patriarchal 
basis. 

Under the Roman Empire social conditions 
were corrupt. Family life had waned. Vice 
was rampant, divorce frequent, and the family 
of integrity and purity, at least in the city of 
Rome, was infrequent. Juvenal cites the case 
of a woman who married eight husbands in five 
years. Yet there must have been many who 
stood for the old standards, for Lecky writes: 
" There can be no question that the moral tone 
of the (female) sex was extremely low — lower, 
probably, than in France under the Regency, or 
in England under the Restoration — and it is 
also certain that frightful excesses of unnatural 
passion, of which the most corrupt of modern 
courts present no parallel, were perpetrated with 
but little concealment on the Palatine. Yet 
there is probably no period in which examples 
of conjugal heroism and fidelity appear more 



Evolution of the Family 81 

frequent than in this very age, in which marriage 
was most free, and in which corruption was so 
general." It was in this period that Christianity 
arose with its high conception of marriage and 
its restricted sanction of divorce. The efforts 
of early Christians were undoubtedly directed 
towards the purification of the family, elimina- 
tion of divorce and vice, and the improvement 
of the lives of children. Early church writers 
attacked sex immorality and licentiousness, and 
praised chastity and celibacy. The family life 
of the early Christians was undoubtedly superior 
to that of the pagan world generally. 

In a later period, with the church strongly 
established and with weak political states, the 
family came under the regulation of the former. 
Marriage was made a sacrament of the church, 
divorce was prohibited. Marriage was brought 
under the entire control of the church. But bad 
influences entered along with the good. The 
patriarchal type of family was promoted, woman 
being viewed as inferior to man and confined to 
domestic duties exclusively. Further, the eleva- 
tion of the doctrine of celibacy debased the mar- 
ried state. Only the highest spiritual power 
could be attained through abstaining from mar- 
riage. Hence the latter involved spiritual pollu- 
tion. Moreover, celibacy could not be kept 



82 The Family and Society 

chaste. Family life was invaded and polluted 
from the direction of a theoretically superior 
spirituality. Moreover, the administration of 
the canonical laws relative to prohibited degrees 
and annulment of marriage was distorted to 
meet the demands of influential persons. It is 
questionable if a thousand years after Christ 
marriage was improved as compared to its con- 
dition in Rome in the first century. 

The Reformation attacked the abuses of the 
system of controlling marriage. Marriage 
ceased to be viewed as a sacrament, it was widely 
held to be a civil contract, notably by the 
Puritans, and the grounds for divorce were 
broadened. Since then the tendency has grown 
to look on marriage in that way and to place it 
under the entire control of the state. In recent 
times the patriarchal family regime is being 
loosened. Education has raised the intelligence 
of women, vocations have been opened to them 
so that marriage is not immediately imperative, 
political and civil rights have been extended. 
Woman has come to be regarded more as a human 
being, possessed of much the same capacity as 
man. As a consequence, her participation in 
matters outside the home has enlarged with a 
consequent improvement in the internal home 
relationships. With the improvement of the 



: 



Evolution of the Family 83 

status of woman relative to the family and the 
home that of children has grown apace. Their 
rights and privileges in matters of play, enjoy- 
ment, education, and to a just consideration on 
the part of fathers as well as mothers are gen- 
erally conceded, and mark one of the greatest 
advances in family life. 



CHAPTER IV 

Current Conditions Affecting the Family 

FOR the purposes of this chapter it is assumed 
that it has been amply established that the 
modern family is marked by higher ethical char- 
acteristics than that of previous times, and that 
the welfare of society demands a further evolu- 
tion in that direction. Further, that the mon- 
ogamic form of marriage is the form of family 
which best subserves the interests of the off- 
spring, parents, and the community at large. 
The conclusion is apparent that whatever 
threatens the existence of the family, lowers its 
tone, or affects its efficiency must be viewed as 
inimical to society generally. The further in- 
ference follows, that wisdom dictates that a 
serious study of conditions affecting family life 
should be made in order that their nature may 
be understood and that evil consequences may 
be averted. In the present chapter attention 
will be paid only to the more pressing and 
menacing of current conditions. To give a 
treatment of all those that press on the family 
is obviously impossible in a single chapter of a 
small volume. However, it is worth while to 

84 



Conditions Affecting the Family 85 

consider the more fundamental ones, and, where 
possible, to point out remedies. It may be 
superfluous to state that no single condition con- 
sidered here stands apart by itself. In the nature 
of the case by the very fact that they are social, 
all conditions are more or less interdependent. 
Consequently, like the directorates of the great 
financial and industrial institutions of the time, 
the conditions which affect the family are 
interlocking. 

1. Conditions Affecting Marriage 

There are a number of conditions which affect 
the entrance into matrimonial life. It is fre- 
quently asserted that marriage is decreasing in 
the United States. This opinion is based on 
the fact that there is a large number of single 
women and men, particularly the latter, in this 
country. Thus in 1910, there were 12,550,129 
males 15 years of age and over, or 38.7 per cent 
of males of that age, and 8,933,170 females 
belonging to the same age group, or 29.7 per 
cent of females of that age, who were single. 
But these facts are misleading and the opinion 
cited is undoubtedly questionable, although no 
absolutely decisive data covering a large lapse 
of time are obtainable. However, there are two 
sets of facts which are suggestive. One consists 



86 The Family and Society 

of statistics of single men and women 65 years 
of age and over and who presumably will never 
marry. In 1890, 5.6 per cent of each of males 
and females belonging to this age group were 
unmarried. Twenty years later, 6.2 per cent 
of all males of this age group and 6.3 per cent 
of females were reported single. This would 
indicate a very insignificant increase in the num- 
ber of single persons, since there are relatively 
few persons 65 years of age and over. 

The other set of facts comprises statistics of 
marriage from 1887 to 1906. An increase in 
the marriage rate is found for the United States 
as a whole, and for each of the several geo- 
graphic divisions. The number of marriages per 
10,000 of population for the nation rose from 
about 87.5 in 1887 to 105 in 1906. In the 
western division, it rose from about 71 to about . 
127, this being the greatest gain. The North 
Central Division showed the least ascent, rising 
from about 91 to about 97.5. These facts 
seemingly indicate that the unmarried element 
of the population is being absorbed. But there 
are two factors which evidently qualify this 
interpretation. First, there is a growth in the 
proportion of marriages reported during the 
period involved. Second, there has been a growth 
of divorce and remarriage during that time. 



Conditions Affecting the Family 87 

However, a comparison of the percentages of 
single persons 15 years of age and over re- 
ported by the censuses of 1890, 1900 and 1910 
respectively were: males, 41.7, 40.2, and 38.7; 
females, 31.8, 31.2, and 29.7, indicating a de- 
crease of unmarried persons in each case. Fur- 
ther, in the South Atlantic states, where the 
divorce rate is lowest, the rate of increase of 
marriage far exceeded that of divorce, indicating 
a large net increase of the former. The infer- 
ence must be, consequently, that there is a prob- 
able decrease in the number of unmarried persons 
in the United States. 

A supposedly considerable factor affecting 
marriage is that of its asserted postponement. 
Some careful writers assign postponement of 
marriage as a fruitful source of increased divorce. 
But a study of the statistics of married and 
unmarried persons in the United States during 
the last two decades reveals the fact that more 
marriages of persons from 15 to 34 years of 
age occurred in the decade ending 1910 than in 
the one ending in 1890. The percentages of 
decrease of single persons in the various age 
groups, 15-19, 20-24, 25-34, were in the same 
order, as follows: males, 1.1, 5.8, 1.8; females, 
2.4, 3.5, 1.7. On the other hand, there was an in- 
crease of single persons in the succeeding age 



88 The Family and Society 

groups, 35-44, 45-64, and 65 and over, as fol- 
lows: males, 1.4, 1.9, 0.6; females, 1.5, 1.4, 
and 0.7. This would indicate that an increasing 
number of persons are marrying early in life 
rather than the reverse. The statistics of mar- 
riage, though of less value because of the inclu- 
sion of remarriage of widowed and divorced, 
prove the same thing. No doubt in certain 
callings there may be a postponement of mar- 
riage, but they constitute a minimum of the 
national population. But their conspicuousness 
has given rise to the assumption of a general 
postponement of marriage. 

The reasons given for the supposed abandon- 
ment and postponement of marriage are the 
opening up of new occupations to women, their 
growing independence, the " woman movement," 
heightening education, the increased cost of liv- 
ing and relatively shortened incomes, and the 
self-centered career of young men in cities. No 
doubt these assigned reasons touch the case of 
the groups in which there is an actual abandon- 
ment and postponement of marriage. Severe 
economic conditions demonstrably postpone mar- 
riage temporarily. Thus following the panics 
of 1893 and of 1903 the otherwise occurring 
annual increase of marriages was reversed and 
became a decrease. The decrease varied with the 






Conditions Affecting the Family 89 

severity of the panic and with the region. But 
a growing increase in the number of marriages 
took place during one of the two succeeding 
years. A better regulation of the industry and 
finance of the nation will obviate even this tem- 
porary postponement. Most of the other causes 
are inherent in an evolving progressive society 
and are likely to remain. 

2. Conditions Affecting the Size of Families 

The importance of the size of families has 
been partly discussed in the chapter on the func- 
tions of the family. There it was indicated that 
the continuance of a stock or nation is dependent 
on the general fecundity of the married persons 
living in the given group. To keep up a stock 
of people, it is necessary that there should be 
as many as three offspring per pair. It is very 
desirable that talented families should be per- 
petuated, but in order that they shall not be 
eliminated the above rate of reproduction must 
be maintained. A highly civilized nation should 
not only perpetuate itself but at the same time 
maintain a relatively high rate of fecundity in 
order that it shall not sink into such an incon- 
spicuous place that its influence upon the world 
at large is lost. But even a small nation may 
be influential. That of Switzerland, for exam- 



90 The Family and Society 

pie, on the world at large has been out of 
keeping with its numerical importance. Perhaps 
if militarism could be abolished, nations generally 
could afford to pay less attention to the matter 
of increase of population and devote their efforts 
to developing the arts of peace and civilization. 
However, there seems to be a connection between 
fecundity and the production of a vigorous civ- 
ilization. Large families and large nations ap- 
pear to be productive of individuals of large 
vitality. I know of no statistics on this par- 
ticular point, but observation would seem to 
substantiate it. It is claimed Karl Pearson has 
demonstrated statistically that immunity from 
tuberculosis increases with the second, and espe- 
cially the third, child of the family. It is sup- 
posed that this immunity may extend to other 
diseases. But the claim requires further 
proof. 

The size of families has steadily declined in 
the United States since the first census was taken 
in 1790. The percentages of natural increase of 
population for the successive decades ending in 
1800, 1810, 1820, 1830, and 1840 were respect- 
ively 33.9, 33.5, 32.1, 30.9, and 29.6; showing 
an average decennial decline of 0.86 per cent. 
This was previous to the heavy immigration 
which set in about 1840. Between 1850 and 1900 



Conditions Affecting the Family 91 

the number of persons in a family in the United 
States was reduced from 5.6 to 4.7, a decrease 
of 16.1 per cent. This would give 3.6 children 
per family in 1850, and but 2.7 in 1900. A 
decline in the birth rate and reduction in the 
size of families is a world phenomenon, one 
common to civilized nations, Germany alone ex- 
cepted, and is seen in the city populations of all 
countries. 

The postponement of marriage doubtless 
operates to decrease the size of families, in so 
far as it obtains. It is amply established that 
the first few years of sexual maturity represent 
the period of greatest fecundity. If marriage 
is delayed until this period is past, a smaller 
family is generally inevitable. In New South 
Wales it is estimated that where the average 
number of children is 3.6 per family, a woman 
of 20 may expect 5 children, one of 28, 3, one 
of 32, 2, and one of 37, 1. In Scotland the 
period of greatest fecundity of women is between 
the ages of 15 and 24. Coughlan believes that 
one-sixth of the decline of birth rate of New 
South Wales is due to late marriage and Heron 
calculates it accounts for 50 per cent of the 
decline in London. As we have seen, marriage 
in the United States during the two decades 
ending with 1910 has occurred earlier for the 



92 The Family and Society 

nation as a whole. The small groups of people 
who probably marry late, doubtless reduce their 
fecundity by that event, whether or not they 
actually reduce the size of their families. 

The exercise of prudence or voluntary control 
of reproduction is unquestionably the largest 
factor in the reduction of the size of families. 
Sidney Webb's investigation in England among 
the middle-class people shows that out of 316 
marriages, 242 practiced limitation of offspring, 
while for the ten years, 1890-1899, out of 120 
marriages, 107 were limited, and five of the 
remainder were childless. His study of benefits 
on child-birth in the Heart of Oaks Friendly 
Society indicates that in 1880, 2,472 per 10,000 
members received such benefits, whereas in 1904, 
only 1,165 for the same number of members 
drew on that fund. This is a higher decrease of 
children than is noted for England at large. 
No such inquiries have been made in the United 
States, but it is likely that about the same forces 
are at work here as in England, although it is 
evident that the limitation of families is not as 
widespread here as there. 

The motives for the exercise of prudence 
doubtless are numerous. Those who replied to 
Webb's questions relative to reasons for limiting 
reproduction, in the group of cases first cited 



Conditions Affecting the Family 93 

above, numbered 128. Of these, 73 alleged pov- 
erty of the parents in relation to the standards 
of comfort; 24 assigned sexual ill health; 38, 
other ill health in parents ; 24, disinclination of 
wife; 8, termination of marriage by the death 
of a parent. Since these were middle-class peo- 
ple, it is not unlikely that their motives are 
fairly representative for inhabitants of America. 
Doubtless the rising standard of living, the 
exhaustion of free public land, the growth of 
luxury on the part of some, the higher education 
of both men and women, the growing selfishness 
in certain sections of the population, and _the 
abandonment of the belief in the binding force 
o£4he~01d Testament injunction on the Hebrews 
to be fruitful and multiply are factors account- 
ing for the increased exercise of prudence. 

Immigration is assigned as a cause of the 
falling birth-rate in America. One of its effects 
is taken to be the retardation of increase of the 
native stock of America. While of some moment, 
this factor has been overrated. The decline in 
the birth-rate in the United States was quite as 
marked previous to the advent of large scale 
immigration as subsequent to it. Where workers 
immediately compete with cheap foreign labor, 
this influence would be most marked, but it has 
little effect on the nation at large, which has been 



94 The Family and Society 

predominantly agricultural during our history. 
Goldenweiser, of the United States Census Bu- 
reau, fairly demonstrates that the claim that our 
national population would have been larger now 
than it is if immigration had not taken place 
has little to rest on; and connects the decrease 
in number of the native stock with urbanization 
and industrialization. 

The spread of venereal diseases is a large fac- 
tor in decreasing the size of families. There are 
no governmental statistics bearing on this sub- 
ject and data relative to these diseases will 
appear in a later portion of this chapter. It 
will be sufficient in the present place to call 
attention to the fact that much sterility of 
infected women, a large number of abortions 
and expulsions of children dead before birth, 
and an overwhelming decedence of children born 
of infected parents result from the "Black 
Plague." 

Nor must we fail to mention the effect that 
developing civilization exercises in this direction. 
In the evolution of the forms of life the rate 
of reproduction has fallen off with the growth 
of brain and intelligence. Increasing rationality 
and psychical development generally has created 
parenthood and childhood and guaranteed life 
against premature death. The supply of living 



Conditions Affecting the Family 95 

forms could be secured advantageously by saving 
individuals already born from ruthless extermina- 
tion. Hence, in the higher forms of life, birth- 
rates are lowered because deaths are postponed. 
During the course of human evolution the same 
tendency is noticeable. Nature seeks to strike 
a balance. In nations having a heavy death-rate, 
a high birth-rate is made imperative if the 
nation is to live and grow. But where life is 
made secure, where infant mortality is reduced 
to the minimum and much attention given to 
sanitation and education, national and racial per- 
petuity are secured without a multiplicity of 
births per family. 

3. Divorce 

Probably no condition that touches the family 
has been discussed longer and at present attracts 
more attention than that of divorce. Its rapid 
growth in the United States especially, and its 
increase in other nations renders it conspicuous 
and causes many to seriously question whether 
or not the principle of monogamy is not being 
threatened. Some of the larger aspects of 
divorce will be treated. It is unfortunate that 
statistics are not available for correlating divorce 
with other social phenomena in order that the 
real causes of divorce might be discovered. Until 



96 The Family and Society 

such a correlation is made the actual conditions 
producing it can only be approximated. 

Much care is needful in using statistics of 
divorce because the case is likely to be exag- 
gerated, and it is bad enough when truthfully 
represented. The statement is ordinarily made 
that there is about one divorce for every thirteen 
marriages in the United States. But two correc- 
tions must be made relative to this statement. 
First, it pertains to native marriages only, that 
is, marriages of native-born persons. Second, 
the comparison relates only to marriages which 
have been terminated either by death or divorce. 
Existing marriages do not enter into the ratio. 
With these qualifications in view, Pictogram I 
depicts the growth of divorce in the United 
States from 1867 to 1906. In 1867 there were 
less than 10,000 divorces granted; in 1906, there 
were about 72,000. The diagonal line indicates 
the number there would have been in the latter 
year had the rate of 1867 relative to the popu- 
lation been maintained; that is, about 23,000. 
In other words, the ratio of divorce to popula- 
tion in 1906 was 3.13 times what it was in 1867. 

A more significant measure of the frequency 
of divorce is to denote its ratio to the number 
of marriages. Viewed in this way, in 1870 there 
were 81 divorces granted for each 100,000 of 



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Growth of divorce in the United States 

Special U. S. Census Report, Marriage and Divorce, 

Part I, p. 12 



98 The Family and Society 

the married population, while in 1900 the num- 
ber was 200, which indicates an increase of 247 
per cent during that period. 

As compared with European nations, the di- 
vorce rate in the United States is very high. 
In 1870 the rate in the United States was 29 
per 100,000 of the population. That of Den- 
mark was 18, being the highest European rate; 
Sweden and Netherlands stood next with 3 each. 
In 1900 the rates per 100,000 stood as follows: 
United States, 73 ; Switzerland, 32 ; France, 23 ; 
Denmark, 17; German Empire, 15; Servia, 13. 
The other European countries for which com- 
parative data are given range from 11 to 1, the 
latter being the rate for Austria. It is to be 
noticed that the divorce rate is increasing in 
Europe, especially in Switzerland, France, and 
Germany. 

Coming to the question of causes of divorce 
we enter a debatable field. Some general socio- 
logical conditions connected with the situation 
may be treated. Geographically, the Western, 
North Central and South Central Divisions of the 
United States bear the highest divorce-rate. The 
Western Division rose from 50 to about 170 
divorces per 100,000 of population from 1867 
to 1906. In the same time, the North Central 
rose from about 44 to about 108; the South 



Conditions Affecting the Family 99 

Central from about 15 to about 118; the North 
Atlantic from about 17 to about 41 ; the South 
Atlantic from about 8 to about 43. Thus the 
Western and South Central Divisions made the 
greatest increases. 

A probably somewhat similar situation occurs 
relative to urban and rural communities. The 
divorce-rate is generally higher in cities than in 
the country. In some states the urban and rural 
rates diverge markedly. Thus per 100,000 pop- 
ulation the city and rural rates in their order for 
these states in 1900 are: Rhode Island, 119 
and 60; Indiana, 233 and 134; Iowa, 251 and 
85; Washington, 266 and 162; California, 219 
and 128. In Kansas City the rate is 2.6 times 
as high as for the rural counties of Missouri. 
It is estimated that the newer sections of the 
nation and the cities wlrich are building up rap- 
idly present somewhat similar conditions for pro- 
ducing divorce. The ambitious, the restless, and 
frequently the less scrupulous rush towards both 
kinds of communities. The restraints of former 
community life are removed so that divorce arises 
as a probable concomitant of other excesses in 
life. 

Race and nationality do not appear to play a 
very large part in the production of divorce. 
It is difficult to determine whether or not negroes 



100 



The Family and Society 



account for the rising rate in the South. In 
Louisiana the rate is highest in the densest negro 
counties, while the reverse is true in Florida. 
But it is determined that the rate is lower among 
foreign-born white persons than among native 
whites of native American parentage. For every 
100,000 persons 15 years of age or over living 
in the United States in 1910, born in foreign 
countries, there were 346 persons divorced. 
Among native whites of the same age group 
born of foreign or mixed parentage the rate was 
240, while among native whites born of native 
parents it was 589. Immigrants from nations 
having low divorce rates and oftentimes empha- 
sizing the sacramental character of marriage 
would be expected to apply for fewer divorces 
than citizens of our nation generally. But why 
the second group, native whites born of foreign 
or mixed parents, should secure relatively so 
much fewer divorces, does not appear. 

It may be fair to conclude that barrenness is 
a standing cause of divorce, since for the period 
1887 to 1906, 40.2 per cent of all cases of 
divorce reported no children. Occupation may 
affect the case, but little is known about this. 
The Special Report on Marriage and Divorce 
of the United States Census Bureau arranges 
the occupations relative to their probable fre- 



Conditions Affecting the Family 101 

quency of divorce. Of 39 occupations and occu- 
pational groups the five highest in the list are 
actors and professional showmen ; musicians and 
teachers of music; commercial travelers; tele- 
graph and telephone operators ; and physicians 
and surgeons. The five lowest in the scale 
are agricultural laborers; clergymen; draymen, 
hackmen, teamsters, etc. ; blacksmiths ; farmers, 
planters, and overseers. But not a great deal 
of weight is claimed for this arrangement. 

A growing proportion of divorces is being 
granted to women. Among other things shown, 
Pictogram II* exhibits this fact. It is seen that 
practically twice as many divorces are issued 
to wives as to husbands. Various reasons are 
suggested to explain this, such as the decay of 
the spirit of submission to the double standard 
of morality on woman's part, and her growing 
independence of thought and of action which are 
due to education and opportunities in the indus- 
trial or occupational fields. 

The growing disbelief in the religious theory 
of marriage unquestionably fosters divorce. The 
popular education of people in matters of law, 
and especially into taking advantage of those 
relating to dissolution of marriage, doubtless 

*I am indebted for this pictogram to Mr. Geo. R. 
Davies, instructor in sociology and history in the Uni- 
versity of North Dakota. 



102 The Family and Society 

possesses some force. The recognition in law 
of more numerous grounds of divorce must have 
considerable productive force; as also does the 
laxness in administering divorce laws, though this 
has been exaggerated. Other factors contribute 
their influence, such as increasing industrialism 
with large populations living on insufficient in- 
comes, rising cost and standard of living which 
strain family incomes to the breaking point, the 
existence of large city areas where vicious con- 
ditions obtain and sex matters are loose, the in- 
troduction of venereal infection into the family, 
chiefly by the husband, and the waning in many 
quarters of the family ideal. Dr. Morrow be- 
lieves that venereal infection is a frequent cause 
of divorce, although it seldom appears in the 
court record as such for the obvious reason that 
few would care to be published as having been 
contaminated. - 

Legally, about 40 grounds of divorce are rec- 
ognized, but the vast majority of divorces are 
granted for adultery, drunkenness, cruelty, de- 
sertion, and neglect to provide, though during 
the last 40 years there has been a tendency to 
increase the relative importance of the grounds 
which involve the less serious offenses. In the 
period 1902-1906, the percentage of all divorces 
granted for the five chief legal causes are as 



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DIVORCES— THOUSANDS 



.2 .a* 
p'o 

03 p 



104 The Family and Society 

follows: desertion, 38.5; cruelty, 23.5; adul- 
tery, 15.3 ; drunkenness, 3.9 ; neglect to provide, 
3.8. Combination of the preceding causes rep- 
resented 9 per cent and all other causes, 5.9 
per cent. In the period 1867-71, adultery fol- 
lowed desertion as next to the leading cause. 
The largest gain made by any of these causes 
between 1902-1906 was that of cruelty to hus- 
bands, which increased in that time 1,609.8 per 
cent ;* while the smallest rate of increase was for 
adultery on the part of husband, divorces on that 
ground growing but 237.1 per cent. More 
divorces were granted to husbands than to wives 
for the ground of adultery, the percentages 
being 59.1 and 40.9. It is likely this difference 
is largely due to the fact that adultery is 
condoned when practiced by men. 

It is often asserted that remarriage is a very 
large motive towards securing divorce. The only 
statistics in the United States touching this issue 
are gathered in Rhode Island, Connecticut, and 
Maine. They indicate that a somewhat larger 
proportion of divorced persons remarried in 1906 
than 25 years earlier. Special qualifying condi- 
tions enter, however, and too much faith should 
not be placed on these facts. In those states 

*This large per cent, however, is based on the occur- 
rences of only a few such cases. 



Conditions Affecting the Family 105 

about 35 per cent of divorced persons remarry. 

It has been asserted by high authorities that 
general postponement of marriage is a fruitful 
condition of divorce because habits and the con- 
sequent characters are well crystallized by the age 
of thirty, and those who marry are more likely 
to clash, whereas those who marry early are able 
to mould their characters relative to each other. 
As has been shown already in this chapter, mar- 
riage is occurring earlier, generally. Some 
groups are marrying later, doubtless, but they 
are the ones* in which higher education and disci- 
pline prevail. Persons of these groups, by rea- 
son of their maturity and control, are the less 
likely to separate except in those instances where 
the occupation puts a premium on personal van- 
ity and gratification. Millions are marrying 
before they are mature in judgment, mating 
on the call of passing impulse, soon disagreeing 
and divorcing. Pictogram II indicates that di- 
vorce sets in in the first year of married life and 
reaches its maximum rate in the fourth year, a 
situation we might expect in the face of so many 
child and youthful marriages. The Court of 
Domestic Relations in Chicago finds juvenile 
marriage is a most fruitful occasion of divorce. 

How far divorce is an evil and to what degree 
it is a benefit is a debatable question. To those 



106 The Family and Society 

who believe in the religious sanctity of marriage 
and that the state should leave marriage matters 
to the church, all divorce, save a minimum 
granted by the church, is bad. To others who 
think that marriage and the family are social 
institutions to be regulated as are other institu- 
tions by civil agencies, the abuses arising in con- 
nection with divorce are bad, but divorce in itself 
is good. Without stopping to discuss that now, 
let us turn to the effect loose divorce is likely 
to produce. 

In discussing divorce it is necessary to divest 
ourselves of older theories of the nature of mar- 
riage and remember that marriage is sociological 
in nature. It is an institution established by 
society through ages of evolution, as we have 
abundantly seen in previous chapters, the essen- 
tial function of which is to perpetuate society 
by reproducing, first, fit physical organisms, and 
second, well equipped social members. A con- 
comitant function is to secure the happiness and 
well-being of the adults through the privileges 
and comforts of family life. The highest in- 
terests of society are secured when the family is 
sanitary and bodily sound, when the offspring 
are duly socialized so as to be able to fill their 
places in society, and when there is loyal coopera- 
tion between husband and wife. Divorce must 



Conditions Affecting the Family 107 

be inspected, then, relative to its effects on chil- 
dren and on parents. 

First, an appreciation of the function of 
parents relative to children enables us to realize 
that where parents are separated so that the off- 
spring enjoy the love and care of but one parent, 
they have lost one of the greatest benefits of 
life. The care and influence of both father and 
mother are needful to a proper nourishing and 
disciplining of children. Juvenile courts bear 
abundant testimony to the efficacy of weak 
parental control and decadent home life in pro- 
ducing delinquency. Professor Charles A. 
Ellwood secured information from 34 reform 
schools and four juvenile courts relative to de- 
linquency and separation of parents. He found 
that out of the 7,575 children in the former, 
29.6 per cent came from families in which there 
had been divorce or desertion; 35.03 per cent 
from families in which either father or mother 
were dead. Including a considerable per cent 
of cases which overlap these first two cases, the 
per cent of children in reform schools coming 
from homes demoralized by drink, vice, or crime, 
was 38.05 per cent. Four thousand two hundred 
seventy-eight juvenile court children show a per- 
centage of 23.7 whose parents were separated 
and 27.8, one or both parents of whom were 



108 The Family and Society 

dead. Out of 687 such children in St. Louis in 
1909 at least 400 had not both parents living 
at home. Thirty-two institutions for dependent 
children whose professed policy was to take des- 
titute children, whether orphans or not, showed 
that out of 3,595 children, 24.7 per cent were 
from families in which there had been desertion 
or divorce, while only 47.5 per cent were either 
orphans or half orphans. Thus it is seen that 
from 50 to 75 per cent of these classes of chil- 
dren emanate from conditions in which one or 
both parents are missing. It can hardly be gain- 
said that the absent parental factor directly or 
indirectly affects the situation. 

Of course where there are no children in the 
home, as we found is the case in about 40 per 
cent of divorces, the evil effects arising from 
separation, if any, are not directed toward 
offspring. 

The discussion of the effects of divorce and 
separation on the husband and wife hinges on 
settling the question of whether or not they 
would be better off living together or apart, 
conditions in the divorce being as they are. The 
following propositions may be briefly made. 
First, where there are children in the home, and 
where it is a case of incompatibility only, it is 
the duty of parents to live together if at all 



Conditions Affecting the Family 109 

possible, until the children are duly reared. Since 
they have brought children into the world and 
become responsible for them, they should sink 
personal happiness to the maximum possible ex- 
tent in order to discharge that responsibility. 
Second, where personal purity, as in the case of 
the presence of venereal disease, and conjugal 
fidelity, as in the case of adulter}^, are the issue, 
separation would appear to be the better course ; 
although in the latter case exceptions should be 
made, dependent on parties and conditions. So 
far there probably would be a large measure of 
agreement. In the case of cruelty, 83 per cent 
of which men are responsible for, where it is 
really severe, it is unreasonable to expect human 
nature will bear with it. The presence in the 
home of a really cruel parent is little conducive 
even to the nurture of offspring. Fortunately, 
for the period 1887-1906, 47.3 per cent of aU 
cases of divorce on the ground of cruelty 
involved no children. But 48.9 per cent of 
divorces secured by wives on the ground of 
cruelty did involve children, which may indicate 
an attempt on the part of mothers to protect the 
children, as it is 7.8 per cent above the average 
for this cause in which children were represented. 
The case of drunkenness is similar. Husbands 
were offenders in 90.6 per cent of divorces on 



110 The Family and Society 

that ground, while 55.1 per cent of divorces 
granted to wives on this charge involved chil- 
dren. In an age where drunkenness represents 
bestiality, its confirmed practice warrants sep- 
aration and divorce. Moreover, its concomitants 
are likely to be most undesirable virtues. Neg- 
lect to provide is almost solely a woman's ground 
for divorce, but 6 divorces in a total of 316,149 
issued to men between 1887 and 1906 being given 
on that ground, 5 of which reported children. 
As compared with other fundamental grounds, 
it is unimportant, representing but 3.7 per cent 
of the total divorces issued. The husband is 
even yet the almost sole support of the wife and 
children. If he voluntarily fails in this, he does 
not justify his function and the wife is justified 
in obtaining release, especially where she is called 
upon to support him and to rear the family at 
the same time. In 49.1 per cent of all divorces 
granted to wives on the ground of unsupport, 
children are involved. 

It would appear that desertion could but issue 
in divorce on any just sociological basis. Sep- 
aration ensues, anyway, and it is often better 
that a divorce should be granted and that the 
innocent party be allowed to remarry. This may 
secure a measure of justice for the husband or 
wife offended against, and provide a home for 



Conditions Affecting the Family 111 

the children. About one-third of all divorces 
granted to wives in the period 1887-1906 were 
on the ground of desertion, and but 7.9 per cent 
of these were contested; while nearly one-half of 
those granted tc husbands was for desertion, of 
which 11.4 per cent were contested. This indi- 
cates that the ground was generally warranted. 
Children were involved in but 23.4 per cent of 
cases of divorce for desertion granted to hus- 
bands and in 43.9 per cent of such divorces 
granted to wives. 

Remedies proposed for the "divorce evil" 
must rest on the recognition of certain things. 
First, the right of the state on the part of society 
to exercise final control of marital matters. 
This means that a return to the religious the- 
ory and ecclesiastical control of marriage is im- 
possible. Marriage is a civil contract, whatever 
else it may be, and society cannot afford to re- 
linquish its interest in the matter and hand it 
over to any partial organization. Second, the 
inevitableness of divorce in an age of transition 
in general and of human emancipation in par- 
ticular. It must be viewed as a symptom of so- 
cial change, a freeing of both men and women 
from a system of conventional and often im- 
moral restraint. When individuals are seeking 
a larger liberty in every field of action and life 



112 The Family and Society 

it is inevitable that abuses shall arise. To check 
this movement is quite impossible without sti- 
fling modern science and industry, the springs 
of progress and civilization. To cure divorce 
can only be done by getting back to the condi- 
tions which produce it along with many other 
modern evils. 

The lines of rectification would appear to lie 
in the following directions: First, minimize and 
remove the present abuses in divorce by securing 
better divorce laws. Uniform divorce legisla- 
tion such as has been proposed by the Congress 
on Uniform Laws would remove certain abuses 
but would not remove divorce. It would, no 
doubt, lessen the number granted. It recog- 
nizes seven grounds for the annulment of mar- 
riage and six for divorce, the latter being adul- 
tery, bigamy, two years' imprisonment for crime, 
extreme cruelty, willful desertion for two years, 
and habitual drunkenness for two years. It rec- 
ognizes absolute divorce, and that from bed and 
board. A decree of nisi is issued in the case 
of the former, to become absolute at the expira- 
tion of a year unless appealed or otherwise or- 
dered by the court. Divorce from bed and board 
may consist in a decree of separation forever, or 
for a limited time, the latter revocable after ap- 
plication of the parties interested upon reconcili- 



Conditions Affecting the Family 118 

ation. Bona fide residence in the state is re- 
quired of applicants, and notification of the de- 
fendant is sought to be secured. This latter 
requirement is necessary since divorce is con- 
siderably reduced where defendants receive no- 
tice. To the provisions of this law should be 
added a regulation prohibiting remarriage 
within a certain time, say a year or two. 
Further, the law should provide for parental 
responsibility of the children where such exist, 
the court of domestic relations or other court 
to determine which parent is to be responsible 
at the time of the decree. 

Second, the establishment of special courts 
of domestic relations which shall have sole juris- 
diction over applications for annulment or di- 
vorce. The Chicago and New York courts have 
demonstrated the efficacy of such courts to pre- 
vent divorce, frequently by securing a reconcili- 
ation between husband and wife, and to improve 
family conditions. These courts should be 
copied in all the states. 

Third, the greatest remedial agency consists 
in reforming marriage rather than divorce. 
Hasty and ill-advised marriages are the most 
fruitful cause of divorces. The foremost stu- 
dents of divorce are agreed in this. They are 
also agreed that recourse must be had to educa- 



114 The Family and Society 

tibn of our young people into the functions 
of marriage and the duties of parents in order to 
bring due relief. This is the work of the home, 
the church, and especially the schools. It is 
a part of the great task of social hygiene which 
society must take up. Matters of marriage and 
family should be taught as a part of prepara- 
tion for life. Their social significance and their 
ethical nature must be inculcated. A choice of 
life mates with eyes open to the meaning of life 
and the possibilities of happiness, and service 
based on a well placed affection, will increase the 
security of married life and reduce divorce ap- 
pelates. 

4* The Social Evil 

The social evil broadly treated represents sex- 
ual immorality and sexual disease in all forms. 
Prostitution is peculiar to the higher stages of 
social evolution. It did not exist in savage times 
but was introduced in the course of barbarism. 
So long as women were regarded as chattels 
there was no call for professional women. In 
medieval times prostitution was regarded as a 
necessity, a form of moral protection of society, 
and the state and city engaged procurers to keep 
up the supply of immoral women. This belief 
still lingers in certain communities and nations, 



Conditions Affecting the Family 115 

although they do not engage in procuring 
women and girls for the trade. 

How widespread vice is it is difficult to state. 
Statistics are not kept by any communities of 
more than the registered prostitutes, and in such 
communities these represent a minimum of all 
fast women. The Chicago Vice Commission 
made a conservative estimate that there are five 
thousand professional prostitutes in that city. 
But various estimates place the number at from 
25,000 to 30,000. Likewise several estimates 
of prostitution in New York City closely agree 
that there are about 40,000 women profession- 
ally or casually engaged in it. Estimates for 
London range from 40,000 to 50,000; for 
Berlin, from 30,000 to 40,000; and for Paris, 
30,000. Smaller cities contribute their quota. 
Rough estimates which assign one prostitute to 
about 15 men enable us to form a conception of 
how the evil radiates. But, it is to be remem- 
bered that the extensive prostitution of great 
cities is chiefly due, not to male residents, but 
to visitors and transients. 

Prostitution affects the family in several ways. 
It lowers the moral tone of the community in 
which it exists, particularly if it receives public 
recognition and regulation. It is the fountain 
head of venereal diseases which enter the family, 



116 The Family and Society 

contaminate wives, produce repugnance, dissen- 
sion, and separation, render women barren, pro- 
duce abortions, and impose hereditary diseases 
on the children which live. It is an especial af- 
fliction to the section of the city in which it is 
allowed to exist, making vice a common fact of 
life and inviting the youth of both sexes into 
its practice. 

To get at its removal it is necessary to know 
its producing conditions. The vice commissions 
of Chicago, Minneapolis, and Portland, and the 
special investigation into prostitution made by 
the United States Department of Commerce and 
Labor agree that while industrial conditions are 
prolific secondary or ultimate factors, the fact 
that multitudes of women receive starvation 
wages and yet lead moral lives proves that other 
causes operate. The special government inves- 
tigation finds little direct connection between 
occupation and prostitution, but traces higher 
professional prostitution back to home and 
neighborhood conditions of vice and immorality. 
It adds the factor of abnormality and weak wills 
in many individuals of the lower professionals 
and casual prostitutes. It found that domestic 
service callings and home conditions were the 
most fruitful sources of the life. Special vicious 
situations in childhood, lack of discipline and 



Conditions Affecting the Family 117 

training and the temptations the young worker 
is subject to either in or in connection with the 
occupation are the greatest sources of the fall. 
Many conditions in society exist which are con- 
tributing factors, such as ignorance of sexual 
matters, unregulated dance halls, amusements 
and drinking places, white slavery traffic, de- 
bauchery of little girls, vicious lodging houses, 
and even public schools in some instances. Low 
wages are the background, which failing to fur- 
nish women with comforts and luxuries, drive 
those who are ignorant, weak, and undisciplined 
to gain them by occasional or habitual vice. 

Venereal disease is widespread, but because 
of its hidden nature it evades statistics. Some 
perception of its widespread existence, however, 
may be gained from certain statements: Nor- 
way, under a compulsory system of reporting 
venereal diseases by doctors, which, of course, se- 
cures cognizance of only part of the cases, 
shows from 10 to 15 cases per 1,000 population 
annually for Christiania during the period of 
years 1879-1898, two-fifths of which were gonor- 
rhoea! and over three-tenths syphilitic. The 
rate for the whole of Norway ranged from 3.55 
in 1882 to 2.14 per 1,000 population in 1889. 
Nations that have compulsory military service 
for all males are a gauge of the presence of 



118 The Family and Society 

the "Black Plague." In the period 1881-86, the 
rates per 1,000 men in the following nations were 
as follows : Germany, 35.1 ; France, 58.2 ; Austria, 
73.6 ; Italy, 102.9. In 1891-96 they were as fol- 
lows for these nations : 29.1 ; 56.7 ; 61 .0 ; 84.9. 
Neisser estimates that gonorrhoea represents 75 
per cent or more, and syphilis from 5 to 18 
per cent of all male diseases in the United States. 
Noeggreath calculates that 80 per cent of mar- 
ried men in New York City have or have had 
gonorrhoea, from which wives are probably in- 
fected. Dr. Morrow states that 70 per cent of 
all his women patients suffering from syphilitic 
infection were respectable married women who 
had been diseased by their husbands. Further, 
it is estimated that from 1.5 to 3 per cent of all 
venereal infection is due to extra-genital sources. 
The deadly effect of these diseases will indi- 
cate their vital influence on the family. Dr. 
Morrow believes that one-eighth of all disease 
and suffering is due to this source. Moreover, 
the incidence of such diseases falls on the young 
during the active and productive period of 
life. The danger to innocent members of society 
is enormous. " Eighty per cent of the deaths 
from inflammatory diseases peculiar to women, 
75 per cent of all special surgical operations 
performed on women, and over 60 per cent of 



Conditions Affecting the Family 119 

all the work done by specialists in diseases of 
women are the result of infection of innocent 
women. Moreover, 50 per cent or more of 
these infected women are rendered irremedially 
sterile, and manj^ are condemned to life-long in- 
validism. 55 The dangers to offspring are great 
and disastrous. All grades of society are subject 
to them. Eighty per cent of the ophthalmia 
which produces blindness in babies, and 20 to 
35 per cent of all blindness come from gono- 
coccus infection. Murderous mortality of off- 
spring comes from syphilis. European data in- 
dicate that 60-61 per cent of cases in private 
practice and 84-86 per cent in hospitals, espe- 
cially visited by prostitutes, entail death. Four- 
nier gives a table of families in which 216 births 
were followed by 183 deaths, and another in 
which 157 births were succeeded by 157 deaths 
of offspring. Further, syphilis is hereditary 
and passes its effects to the third generation of 
those that live. Gonorrhoea is not hereditary 
but wields an even greater depopulating effect. 
Neisser thinks it causes 45 per cent of invol- 
untary sterility, and in 80 sterile marriages 
Kehrer found that 45 were caused by inflamma- 
tory and other changes — all of gonorrhoeal 
origin. These figures are for absolute sterility. 
But its greatest effect is to produce one-child 



120 The Family and Society 

sterility. When it is remembered further that 
insanity, feeble-mindedness, and other abnormal 
effects are entailed by venereal infection, its 
deadly results become all the more apparent. 

The cure for the social evil is not in counte- 
nancing and segregating it. Regulation does 
not regulate, as experience in European and 
American cities proves. Regulation means rec- 
ognition of its right to exist on the part of the 
public and government. Every system of regis- 
tration, sequestration, and inspection has broken 
down. Berlin has 10,000 prostitutes under sur- 
veillance by the police and 30,000 more at large. 
So far as statutory enactment and governmental 
action relative to it goes, it must be on the basis 
of absolute prohibition. There is no dissent 
from this on the part of vice commissions. 
Many of their members began their work be- 
lievers in segregation and regulation. Their 
investigations uniformly converted them to the 
position of prohibition as the only right and 
feasible governmental attitude. It is also note- 
worthy that medical men are more and more 
coming to this position. 

Instruction in sexual hygiene is coming to be 
viewed as imperative. Boys and girls must be 
taught the nature and function of sex, the right 
care of themselves, the awful perils that await 



Conditions Affecting the Family 121 

the patrons of vice. This should be the work 
of the home, but in default of parents who are 
prepared to give the proper instruction, the 
schools must respond and carry on the work. 
This should be done in a sympathetic, yet sci- 
entific, manner. Moreover, an appeal must be 
made to the moral nature and a higher and 
stronger self-control and personal discipline se- 
cured. This is a work, not for the prudish, con- 
ventional moralist, but for the trained expert 
who loves humanity and sympathizes with the 
temptations and trials of youth. 

Social conditions generally stand in need of 
regulation so that special temptations and pit- 
falls shall be removed, and the grounds of ne- 
cessity to practice vice to secure a decent living 
be eliminated. The public regulation of amuse- 
ment, recreation, and dance halls, and the pro- 
vision of healthful forms of recreation and sport 
are essentials of a constructive program of re- 
form. A minimum wage for working girls and 
women is a necessary factor in this work. Fur- 
ther, the elimination of vicious conditions in 
lodging houses where working girls live must 
be secured. 



CHAPTER V 

Biological Phases of Sex and the Family 

BIOLOGICAL factors intrude themselves into 
the institution of the family in a most pro- 
found manner. The primary relation of husband 
and wife in the exercise of the reproductive 
function is purely a physiological one. The di- 
vision of labor which obtains normally between 
man and woman in carrying on the life work of 
the domestic institution was originally deter- 
mined by the demands which arose as a result of 
the differences of sex. As bearer and nurturer 
of the child primitive woman was compelled to 
be relatively sedentary, an attendant, and func- 
tionary of the camp because of the child. The 
man, unfettered by infant dependents, was free 
to travel far from camp in quest of game and in 
the execution of his militant duties of protector. 
Likewise in modern times, because of relief from 
childbearing and nurturing, his division of 
labor has lain principally outside the home, 
while that of the woman has chiefly followed 
the lines established by her primitive and pre- 
historic prototype. 

The view that the male is the central and the 
122 



Biological Phases of Sex 123 

more essential factor in human affairs is as old 
as recorded history. Long before the time of 
scientific biologic conceptions the notion was 
dominant that man is the center and head of the 
social order. It was held that he dominated 
in life matters because of innate superiority. 
When the science of biology arose it was nat- 
ural that this conception should have been in- 
corporated into its doctrines. But in recent 
years another philosophy of the relative im- 
portance of the sexes has been proposed which 
reverses the order biologically, and further ex- 
plains man's leading role in society as due to 
artificial conditions ; that is, to those which have 
arisen as a consequence of social evolution. This 
new view has been appropriated by members of 
the "feminist" movement, and used as a justi- 
fication of universal sex equality. Since this 
theory, in large measure, involves the biological 
history of the sexes, it is important that it be 
examined. 

Again the question arises as to whether the 
family is purely a biological matter, whether it 
has arisen solely for the convenience of the 
mating sexes, or whether it has other promoting 
causes. The earlier chapters of this volume, 
together with this one, furnish data for arriving 
at a conclusion relative to this question. 



124 The Family and Society . 

Lastly, the family institution is closely re- 
lated to the issues involved in the increase of pop- 
ulation, the determination of sex, and the im- 
provement of the physical stock. Each of these 
items is closely linked v/ith important problems 
of the present day. 

1. The Appearance of Sex 

A discussion of the origin of sex is difficult 
for the layman, as are many other phases of the 
biological history of sex. Many of these mat- 
ters are still unsettled and their discussion is 
technical and extensive. Yet it is safe to say 
that sex is a somewhat late innovation in the 
evolution of life forms. This is obvious if 
we make a distinction in the mode of reproduc- 
tion, as is the common practice. That is, the 
earlier mode of reproduction was asexual; the 
later one, sexual. Thomson says that the feature 
common to the ordinary forms of asexual multi- 
plication is that "reproduction is independent 
of eggs or sperms, or any process comparable 
to fertilization." He also states that " although 
we can no longer say that unicellular organisms 
are without sexual reproduction, since many ex- 
hibit the liberation of special reproductive units 
and the occurrence of amphimixis, we may still 
say that, apart from transitional forms (like 



Biological Phases of Sea: 125 

volvox, which form colonies, or ' bodies' of 
one thousand to ten thousand cells), there is 
among the unicellulars only the beginning of 
the important distinction between somatic or 
bodily and germinal or reproductive material, 
which distinguishes multicellular organisms. This 
makes a notable distinction." {Heredity, pp. 
34, 36). A brief exposition of the methods of 
reproduction will help to make this clear. 

The protozoa constitute the lowest forms of 
life, the world of single-cell animals. The 
method of multiplication of many of these crea- 
tures is that of segmentation. This process of 
division begins in what appears to be the active 
agent of the cell, namely, the nucleus. Gradu- 
ally two nuclei develop from the original nu- 
cleus and new organisms are formed about them 
which finally separate, each constituting a com- 
plete protozoan. Prior to reproduction after 
this manner a conjugation between unrelated 
creatures commonly takes place. Just what is 
the significance of this, whether a mode of reju- 
venation of the stock or a kind of fertilization, 
is in dispute. It seems safe to say that although - 
scores of generations may take place without 
such conjugation the stock will ultimately de- 
teriorate and die unless either such crossing is 
made or suitable nutritive conditions are main- 



126 The Family and Society 

tained. Thus, conjugation and nourishment ap- 
pear to be close equivalents in the lowest forms 
of life. 

Some of the single-cell animals multiply by 
means of " spores." These are very small por- 
tions of the original form which are liberated 
and which develop into complete organisms. 
New creatures have also been grown from arti- 
ficial cuttings. But in this case it is held that 
the fragment must have a representative of the 
various partners entering into the "organiza- 
tion " of the original being in order to develop. 

Ascending in the scale of life it is found that 
in certain multicellular organisms multiplication 
is sexless. It takes place asexually by separa- 
tion of gemmules, and by budding, as seen in 
fresh water sponges, polyps, and fresh water 
hydra; also in some worms and tunicates, the 
latter really being vertebrates. In some cases 
where asexual multiplication does not really 
occur, cut-off portions may, under suitable con- 
ditions, grow into mature individuals. Such is 
the case in the sponge, starfish, planarian worm, 
etc. Plants produce detachable buds. Mature 
individuals may be secured by means of slips and 
roots, such as in the case of strawberries and 
currants. Potatoes are grown from cuttings. 
Such instances show that little division of labor 



Biological Phases of Sex 127 

in the body and slight differentiation between 
body and germ cells exist. 

In higher multicellular animals germ plasm, 
spermatozoa, and ova are introduced. Real sex 
appears, the male possessing the sperm and the 
female the ovum. A junction of the two are 
necessary for reproduction. The ovum is sup- 
posed to furnish the food-yolk for the early de- 
velopment of the embryo. The sperm con- 
tributes the centrosome which is the active agent 
in the organization of the fertilized cell for 
further growth by subdivision. Both parents 
contribute to the organization which ensues by 
imparting chromatic material. But experiments 
of DeLage indicate that individuals may be 
produced without the presence of the nucleus 
and chromosomes of the ovum. On the other 
hand Loeb's experiments on the same kind of 
organisms, sea-urchins, show that they may be 
developed without the presence of the sperm, by 
supplying a 50 per cent solution of magnesium 
chloride and sea water. These experiments 
merely confirm "the general assumption that 
spermatozoon and ovum are completely equipped 
potential organisms." "When we consider the 
ovum and spermatozoon as two fully equipped 
potential individualities which unite to form the 



128 The Family and Society 

beginning of a new individuality, we see more 
clearly how, on the one hand, there is a double 
likelihood of the essential specific characters be- 
ing sustained, and how, on the other hand, there 
is every likelihood that the intermingling will 
lead indirectly, if not directly, to something 
new." (Thomson, Heredity, Chap. II.) The 
further development of the sexes of the higher 
forms of life from this stage on presents no 
new principle. Because of this, it requires no . 
special treatment. 

The view developed by Professor Lester F. 
Ward departs widely from the concept outlined 
above. In his opinion all life in the beginning 
and for some time after was exclusively female. 
" In all the different forms of asexual reproduc- 
tion, from fission to parthenogenesis, the female 
may ... be said to exist alone and perform all 
the functions of life including reproduction. In 
a word, life begins as female." However, he 
recognizes that initial life is really pre-sexual. 
How the male was evolved he summarizes as fol- 
lows: "The manifest advantage of crossing 
strains and infusing into life elements that come 
from outside the organism, or even from a spe- 
cialized organ of the same organism, was seized 
upon by natural selection, and a process was 
inaugurated that is called fertilization, first 



Biological Phases of Sex 129 

through an organ belonging to the organism 
itself (hermaphroditism), and then by the de- 
tachment of this organ and its erection into an 
independent but miniature organism wholly un- 
like the primary one. This last was at first 
parasitic upon the primary organism, then com- 
plemental to it and carried about in a sac pro- 
vided for the purpose. Its simplest form was a 
sac filled with spermatozoa in a liquid or gelatin- 
ous medium. . . . This fertilizing organ . . . was 
the primitive form of what subsequently devel- 
open into the male sex, the female sex being the 
organism proper, which remained practically un- 
changed. The remaining steps in the entire proc- 
ess consisted, therefore, in the subsequent modi- 
fication and creation, as it were, of the male or- 
ganism." Because the female constantly selected 
the form which best fitted her needs the shapeless 
sac " gradually assumes a definite form agreeing 
in general characteristics with that of the orig- 
inal organism. There is no other reason why the 
male should in the least resemble the female." 
After the male had become an independent 
organism capable of carrying on fertilization 
functions, the esthetic tastes of the female and 
the competition among the males for the favor 
of the females, selected the most highly deco- 
rated and strongest males for reproductive pur- 



130 The Family and Society 

poses. Thus, by the time the human stage was 
reached, males became equal to, and oftentimes 
"superior" to, the females. 

But, before male dominance set in there 
existed a state of society or relationship be- 
tween the sexes which Ward, following Bachof en, 
terms gynecocracy, or female rule. The evi- 
dence for this is based on the occurrence of 
amazonism, or militant feminism, the matri- 
archate, or metronymic, family, and the absence 
of a knowledge of the part the father played in 
fertilization, with the resulting absence of con- 
trol of the offspring. Consequently it was a con- 
dition of female selection, a situation where the 
males had to sue for the favors of the females. 

Then came the fall. "As it was brain devel- 
opment which alone made man out of an animal 
by enabling him to break over faunal barriers 
and overspread the globe, so it was brain de- 
velopment that finally suggested the causal nexus 
between fertilization and reproduction, and led 
to the recognition by man of his paternity and 
joint proprietorship with woman in the off- 
spring of their loins. This produced a pro- 
found social revolution, overthrew the author- 
ity of woman, destroyed her power of selection, 
and finally reduced her to the condition of mere 
slave of the stronger sex, although that strength 



Biological Phases of Sea: 131 

had been conferred by her. . . . Throughout 
all human history woman has been discriminated 
against and held down by custom, law, literature, 
and public opinion. All opportunity has been 
denied her to make any trial of her powers in 
any direction. In savagery she was underfed, 
overworked, unduly exposed, and abused, so that 
in so far as these influences could be confined to 
one sex, they tend to stunt her physical and 
mental powers. During later ages her social 
ostracism has been so universal and complete that, 
whatever powers she may have had, it was im- 
possible for her to make any use of them, and 
they have naturally atrophied and shriveled. 
Only during the last two centuries and in the 
most advanced nations, under the growing power 
of the sociogenetic energies of society, has some 
slight relief from her long thraldom been grudg- 
ingly and reluctantly vouchsafed. What a 
continued and increasing tendency in this direc- 
tion will accomplish it is difficult to presage, but 
all signs are at present hopeful." (Pure So- 
ciology, Chap. 14.) 

The origin of sex is too much a mooted ques- 
tion to express a dogmatic opinion about it. 
However, it would appear that Ward takes too 
little cognizance of the conjugation which op- 



132 The Family and Society 

erates among low forms of life. Moreover, 
he takes much of his evidence from animals, 
which are not ancestral forms of life relative to 
man. His position that originally the female 
was equal to, or superior to, the male as an or- 
ganism, is evidently true. Also the most of 
what he says relative to the place of woman in 
social evolution is true. But it is probable that 
there was never a universal stage of gynecoc- 
racy or matriarchy such as he proposes, although 
among some peoples there was something akin 
to it; as for instance the strong influence in 
tribal matters exercised by the women among 
the Iroquois. 

#. The Function of Sex 

Sex undoubtedly is a device worked out by 
nature in a stumbling way but which at the same 
time secures the desirable result of multiplying 
the possibilities of improvement of the stock or 
race through variation. The lowest forms of life 
multiply themselves by self-division. Life runs in 
a cycle of a very narrow and identical kind. 
Millions of years may have elapsed before 
variations occurred which improved the stock 
and resulted in race progress. Conjugation, 
which takes place between individual organisms, 
seems to have for its function the rejuvenation 



Biological Phases of Sex 133 

of the stock, since a change of the nutritive ele- 
ment secures the same result. 

When sex in the true sense is introduced the 
possibilities of race evolution are enormously in- 
creased. The laws of heredity still obtain, but 
the hereditary elements which come together in 
the offspring of the union are derived from dif- 
ferent and dissimilar stocks of individuals. The 
possibility of this is seen in the, fact that €ach 
individual has two parents, four grandparents, 
eight great-grandparents, and sixteen in the 
fourth set of parents removed. Under the oper- 
ation of inheritance, reversion to type occurs 
and the stirps from any one of the parents of 
the fourth generation removed from the off- 
spring, has a possibility, according to Galton, 
of one-sixteenth of total possibilities of influ- 
encing the nature of the child. Although 
the exactitude of the Galtonian law has been 
questioned, the possibility of new combinations 
arising from uniting stirps from so many diver- 
gent directions is simply enormous. A good 
illustration of this is seen in the ethnological 
field. According to Deniker a race is a pure 
stock of people that in reproduction breeds pure. 
That is, stature, form of head, complexion, form 
and color of hair, color of eyes, and other bodily 
characters, would remain similar in offspring and 



134 The Family and Society 

parent. The original races were of this nature. 
But intermingling of races and stocks with cross- 
ing of parent strains have so varied the peoples 
of the earth that scarcely a pure type exists to- 
day. Race strains and stock strains of most di- 
verse characters are found in modern individuals. 
Variations in respect to all the bodily character- 
istics enumerated above take place. Other things 
being equal, improvement of the physical stock 
occurs by this procedure. Holmes has artistic- 
ally represented the gradual mingling of the 
races during ethnological history and pictures 
the complete fusion of all the stocks of people 
and the disappearance of anything like distinct 
races in the somewhat distant future. 

It must not be forgotten that heredity dom- 
inates in the process of variation. The influence 
of parentage is bound to be felt. The stirps 
that come down from the past to unite in the 
new creature are those from a race, a stock, 
a family. The new creature is bound to be much 
like the old. Even in stock breeding, where 
artificial selection governs the matter of pairing, 
heredity sets bounds. Bateson says that the 
part prophecy plays is small. " Variation leads ; 
the breeder follows. The breeder's method is 
to notice a desirable novelty, and to work up 



Biological Phases of Sea: 135 

a stock of it, picking up other novelties in his 
course — for these genetic disturbances often 
spread — and we may rest assured the method 
of nature is not very different." As Thomson 
says, from whose work this is quoted, "Let 
the believer in the efficacy of selection operating 
on continuous fluctuations try to breed a white 
or black rat from a pure strain of black-and- 
white rats by choosing for breeding the whitest 
or the blackest; or to raise a dwarf ('Cupid') 
sweet pea from a tall race by choosing the 
shortest. It will not work. Variation leads and 
selection follows." (Heredity, p. 89.) 

Intelligent selection, however, on the part of 
would-be parents may accomplish much both 
positively and negatively for the improvement 
of the human race. As a positive matter the 
woman or man desiring to mate has the power 
to choose a mate who has the characteristics of 
a good race stock. If mates are selected who 
have the advantage of size, strength, freedom 
from abnormalities in form and physiognomy, 
and of mental ability, the assurance is warranted 
that the offspring which may issue from the 
mating will be adequate for the undertakings of 
life. On the other hand, security for the off- 
spring may be attained negatively by avoiding 



136 The Family and Society 

mating with persons having diseased, abnormal, 
or undesirable characteristics. Most character- 
istics are transmitted directly from parents to 
offspring, and an examination of the candidate 
for marriage will usually reveal the defect and 
be sufficient to prevent undesirable results. 
Others maj r lie back in the parentage and, though 
not affecting the present individuals who mate, 
may use them as a means of transmission. De- 
fects of many bodily structures are transmissible 
and evidence of this may be found in works on 
eugenics and genetics. It is fairly certain that 
feeble-mindedness, epilepsy, and certain phases 
of insanity, narcotism, syphilis, and of crimi- 
nality, are inheritable. The reader will find these 
amply treated in the class of works just men- 
tioned. Further, the effects of venereal diseases 
are not confined to the first generation, but often 
visit terrible afflictions upon those who follow. 
Nothing short of a bill of health based upon 
physical examination is sufficient to protect the 
integrity of the race from the scourges which 
now afflict humanity. 

3. Nature of Sex Differences 

It is obvious that the sexes are different. 
Not only do they vary in matters of height, 
weight, size of head, form and proportion of 



Biological Phases of Sex 137 

body, functions and organs of reproduction, and 
in many other physical particulars, but there 
appears to be some grounds for declaring that 
they are dissimilar in physical respects. What- 
ever the cause and permanency of many of the 
physical characteristics peculiar to each sex, it 
can hardly be doubted that some of the present 
psychic differences have sprung out of past so- 
cial conditions. Thus, all or most of the seeming 
mental inferiority of women, together with the 
so-called character of indirection, undoubtedly 
arose out of the fact that for untold centuries 
woman occupied the position of a dependent 
relative to man. Any failure to be interested 
in man's world and affairs, her small showing in 
the world of achievement, her dominant interest 
in domestic and social matters have their expla- 
nation in her almost complete severance from the 
world of affairs, even to this day. Where there 
is no responsibility for carrying on the world's 
external work, it is useless to expect a high 
mental ability in those directions. And the fact 
of dependence is sufficient to account for woman's 
methods of indirection. Not being able to de- 
cide issues on their merit, because of the ar- 
bitrary course of the master to whom all prop- 
erty and civil rights belonged, she has been 
.forced to accomplish her purposes by the subtle 



138 The Family and Society 

manipulation of her over-lord. Woman's so- 
called "peculiar" characters, instead of being in- 
herent and innate, are quite a matter of social 
heredity, having been handed down through the 
line of daughters in an imitative manner. 

On the other hand it can hardly be doubted 
that there is a fundamental psychical difference 
between the sexes which arises from their di- 
vergent reproductive natures. That woman 
should always and everywhere manifest an in- 
terest in all matters that concern children im- 
measurably greater than the interest shown by 
man should be expected in consideration of her 
reproductive functions. The child's long period 
of incubation in her body, its suckling from 
her breasts, its absolute dependence on her for 
care during several years, have created a special 
and intense psychical constitution relative to 
child affairs that can only be fitly denoted by the 
term maternal. 

In so far as the distinctions between the sexes 
are biological in origin and nature the question 
arises as to whether they are primary or second- 
ary. That is, whether they are inherent in the 
very constitution of sex or whether they have 
appeared as incidents in the evolution of the 
sexes. A discussion and decision of this ques- 
tion does not involve and pronounce on the 



Biological Phases of Sex 139 

" inferiority " of woman. She might be inferior 
in strength, activity, size, and other respects, 
and yet be equal or superior to her male con- 
sort. The relation of the sexes and their posi- 
tion in society must be placed on a functional 
and an adaptative basis and the merits of the 
two must be viewed in that light. If there ap- 
pears to be a biologic and sociologic division of 
labor, and the woman is as well adapted to 
carry on her natural functions as man is to 
exercise his, she evidently cannot in any sense 
be regarded as inferior. To pronounce her in- 
ferior, when she executes the functions to which 
she is adapted would be as illogical as to assert 
that the linotype machine is inferior to the loco- 
motive. 

Whether the physical characteristics of the 
sexes are constitutional or not is a large and 
complicated question. All parties are agreed 
that the reproductive organs and functions are 
primordial. The other characteristics which 
were called by Charles Darwin secondary sex- 
ual characteristics are matters of dispute. On 
these at least two general views are held. 

Darwin believed that natural selection accounts 
for the evolution of the various forms of life 
in the vegetable and animal world, and that 
sexual selection explains the secondary differ- 



140 The Family and Society 

ences between the sexes of plants and animals, 
including human beings. That the male human 
being is larger, taller, stronger, heavier, he be- 
lieved to be due to the operation of the selec- 
tive process exercised by the females during the 
ages past in choosing mates, together with that 
of the law of battle obtaining among males. 
Women, by exercising a preference for mates 
that were strongest, most active, most deco- 
rated with hair, have placed a premium on that 
type of man and have chosen to mate and breed 
with such. Consequently, successive generations 
of males have responded by more and more ap- 
proximating those characters. Hence, men have 
differentiated from women in those particulars. 
Such characteristics are, therefore, not original 
and primordial, but somewhat incidental and sec- 
ondary. They may also and consequently be 
modified. Such is not the case with the pri- 
mary distinctions of sex. This, in brief, was 
Darwin's theory, the one that most commonly 
is held. 

In recent years a new theory has grown up 
and is gaining in acceptance. Wallace, the col- 
league of Darwin in the statement and proof of 
evolution by natural selection, dissented from 
Darwin's position that sexual selection accounted 
for the divergences between man and woman. 



Biological Phases of Sex 141 

Instead he made certain criticisms and sug- 
gested that the dissimilarities were so deep that 
they can only be primary in nature. 

More recently Geddes and Thomson have de- 
veloped the primordial constitutional theory and 
given it support by a vast array of facts. Other 
writers have contributed in the same direction. 
It is believed that the so-called secondary sex- 
ual characters have been merely the expression 
of primordial constitutional differences. Meta- 
bolism — that is protoplasmic changes that go 
on constantly in all organic bodies — is common 
to man and woman. But this metabolism is 
of two kinds, namely, anabolic or constructive, 
and katabolic or destructive. Metabolism of the 
constructive and conserving kind characterizes 
the female. In her the building up process tends 
to exceed the tearing down process. The male, 
on the other hand, is more dominantly anabolic. 
He tends to use up energy, to dissipate it. 
Woman, as a consequence, is more conservative 
in the expenditure of her forces, is steadier, 
more patient, more enduring in the things she 
does. Man is inclined to run into excesses of 
expenditure, particularly in his earlier period, 
takes great spurts witl intermittent slumps, is 
less passive than woman and more active. Hence, 
Geddes and Thomson say: "The life-ratio of 



142 The Family and Society 

anabolic to katabolic changes, A:K, in the fe- 
male is normally greater than the corresponding 
life-ratio, a:k, in the male. This, for us, is the 
fundamental, the physiological, the constitu- 
tional difference between the sexes; and it be- 
comes expressed from the very outset in the 
contrast between their essential reproductive ele- 
ments, and may be traced on into the more su- 
perficial secondary sexual characters." 

Should readers desire to have the evidence for 
the above theories they will find Darwin's facts 
in his Descent of Man, Part II, which deals with 
sexual selection; Geddes and Thomson in their 
Evolution of Sex present much evidence of the 
other theory ; and Professor Thomas, in his Sex 
and Society, Chap. I, has collected from all di- 
rections and summarized facts in its support. 
It must be said that there is much to commend 
in the constitutional theory. It falls in line with 
what we ought to expect in consideration of the 
specialized reproductive function of females 
among all child-bearing animals. It also touches 
the matter of nutrition, as all the evidence in 
support of it so abundantly shows. Nutrition 
and reproduction are closely associated. Re- 
production makes enormous demands on females. 
This is shown by the difference in specific grav- 
ity of the blood of man and woman. In woman 



Biological Phases of Sex 143 

this change in specific gravity is related to the 
reproductive period. It is less than that in 
man up to about the age of 55, equals his dur- 
ing the next ten years, and is greater after that. 
Her energy, which is represented in the hema- 
globin of her blood, the latter deciding the spe- 
cific gravity of the blood, is consumed by the 
drain made during the period of reproduction. 
This process calls for a conservative and con- 
structive metabolism. Hence woman and other 
females are anabolic, conserving of their energy 
which is gained through nutrition, perhaps 
more responsive to nutritive changes than males, 
because their physiological division of labor de- 
mands it. 

1+. Sex Determination 

In recent scientific books two new theories of 
determining the sex of the offspring have ap- 
peared. One of these is based on the operation 
of gravity during the process of copulation, 
the other on the application of adrenalin. These 
are but samples of theories numbering above 
five hundred which have been proposed for the 
determination of sex. Since so many ways have 
been suggested and probably not more than 
one can be true it would appear that the subject 
is one of much doubt. 



144 The Family and Society 

The theory that sex is determined by the 
amount and quality of nutrition is one of the 
most favored theories. Experiments on develop- 
ing tadpoles, bees, and many other forms of life 
have been made. Those on tadpoles may be 
used illustratively. I quote Geddes and Thom- 
son: "Adopting the view stated by Yung, we 
shall simply state the striking results of one 
series of observations. When the tadpoles were 
left to themselves, the percentage of females 
was rather in the majority. In three lots the 
proportion of females to the males was as fol- 
lows: 54:46; 61:39; and 56:44. The aver- 
age number of females was thus about 57 in the 
hundred. In the first brood, by feeding one 
set with beef, Yung raised the percentage of 
females from 54 to 78; in the second, with 
fish, the percentage rose from 61 to 81 ; while 
in the third set, when the flesh of frogs was 
supplied, the percentage rose from 56 to 92. 
That is to say, in the last case the result of 
altered diet was that there were 92 females to 
8 males. From the experience and carefulness 
of the observer, these striking results are en- 
titled to great weight." * 

It is a long journey in the evolutionary series 

from tadpoles to man, yet the authorities just 

* Geddes and Thomson, The Evolution of Sex, pp. 45-6. 



Biological Phases of Sex 145 

quoted are inclined to believe that the same holds 
true respecting the latter. They say: "Ploss 
may be mentioned as an authority who has em- 
phasized this factor in homo. Statistics seem to 
show that after an epidemic or a war the male 
births are in a greater majority than is usually 
the case. Diising also points out that females 
with small placenta and little menstruation bear 
more males, and contends that the number of 
males varies with the harvest and prices. In 
towns, and in prosperous families, there seem 
to be more females, while males are more nu- 
merous in the country and among the poor." 
But Geddes and Thomson recognize that other 
factors than nutrition enter into sex-determina- 
tion, and they connect the latter with their theory 
of sex difference which was exposited in the 
immediately preceding section. Such factors as 
heat, light, moisture, enter into the situation. 
We will hear their conclusions : 

" Such conditions as deficient or abnormal 
food, high temperature, deficient light, mois- 
ture, and the like, are such as tend to induce a 
preponderance of waste over repair — a rela- 
tively katabolic habit of body — and these con- 
ditions tend to result in the production of males. 
Similarly, the opposed set of factors, such as an 
abundant and rich nutrition, abundant light and 



146 The Family and Society 

moisture, favor constructive processes; i. e., 
make for a relatively anabolic habit, and these 
conditions tend to result in the production of 
females. With some element of uncertainty, we 
may also include the influence of the age and 
physiological prime of either sex, and of the 
period of fertilization. But the general con- 
clusion is tolerably secure — that in the deter- 
mination of sex, influences inducing a relative 
predominance of katabolism tend to result in 
production of males, as those favoring a relative 
predominance of anabolism similarly increase the 
probability of females." * 

This theory takes us into the controversy over 
the question whether or not the germ plasm may 
be influenced by external conditions. This is 
close to the problem of the transmission of ac- 
quired characters, but it is not identical with it. 
That the germ plasm should be influenced by 
the transfusion of the nutrition of the body so 
that the reproductive elements are determined as 
to their sexual structure is a far different mat- 
ter from passing on a scar or skill through 
their agency. Says Thomson, in his Heredity, 
"the case does not do more than show that the 

* Geddes and Thomson, The Evolution of Sex, pp. 53, 
55. 






Biological Phases of Sex 147 

gonads (germ glands) are reachable by somatic 
influences, which no biologist has ever denied." 

It is interesting to note that one of the two 
collaborators and expositors of the above the- 
ory has moved away from it toward the other 
theory of sex determination which we shall no- 
tice. His statement forms a real connection be- 
tween the two. Referring to the earlier position 
he had held he says : " In some cases it still seems 
legitimate to believe that external conditions 
may have a role in sex determination* but in 
many cases further experiment has invalidated 
results previously accepted. More and more it 
seems being proved that the sex is fixed in the 
fertilized ovum or earlier, and it is difficult to 
verify any hypothesis as to the conditions of 
determination at this early^ stage." Since the 
proportion of male and female births through- 
out is quite constant, the mean being 1,060 males 
to 1,000 females, and since "about 30 per cent 
of ordinary twins are of different sexes, while 
identical (monochorial) twins — surrounded by 
one foetal membrane or chorion, and almost cer- 
tainly developed from one ovum — are always 
of identical sex," it is apparent that external 
conditions have little to do in sex-determination, 
and that this takes place in the fertilized ovum. 



148 The Family and Society 

Sex-determination, then, may depend either on 
"a number of minute and variable factors," or 
upon heredity. What the latter means is that 
there is an abiding ratio between the sexes, which 
probably is somewhat different race by race ; and 
that sex is determined in the fertilized ovum by 
means of some sort of a compromise between the 
parental factors which enter into the situation. 
{Heredity, J. Arthur Thomson, pp. 205 and 
500-504.) We now pass on to what may be 
called the chance theory, which various cytolo- 
gists at the present time support. Mr. Charles B. 
Davenport has embodied it in his work on eugen- 
ics, and Professor Walter in his Genetics. 

On the subject of sex-determination, Daven- 
port indicates that it is necessary to study the 
offspring of human marriage. He says : " Now 
marriage can be and is looked at from many 
points of view. In novels, as the climax of 
human courtship; in law, largely as a union of 
two lines of property descent; in society, as 
fixing a certain status ; but in eugenics, which 
considers its biological aspect, marriage is an 
experiment in breeding; and the children, in 
their varied combinations of characters, give the 
result of the experiment. That marriage should 
be only an experiment in breeding, while the 
breeding of many animals and plants has been 



Biological Phases of Sex 149 

reduced to a science, is a ground for reproach. 
Surely the human product is superior to that of 
poultry ; and as we may now predict with preci- 
sion the characters of the offspring of a partic- 
ular pair of pedigreed poultry, so may it some 
time be with man. As we now know how to make 
almost any desired combination of the characters 
of the guinea-pigs, chickens, wheats, and cottons, 
so may we hope to do with man." {Heredity in 
Relation to Eugenics, p. 7.) 

The transmission of sex must take place by 
means of the mechanism by which other charac- 
teristics are conveyed. What are known as unit 
characters lie at the basis of this. Traits are 
handed down from generation to generation 
through the sperm and ovum. These combine 
in the fertilized ovum and determine that the 
offspring is to be of a given species or sex. " The 
resulting characteristics are determined by chem- 
ical substances in the fertilized egg. It is be- 
cause of certain chemical and physical differences 
in two fertilized eggs that one develops into an 
ox and the other into a man. The differences 
may be called determiners." (Same, p. 10.) 

Unit characters are closely connected with 
transmitting traits. Illustrations of unit char- 
acters would be brown eyes, blue eyes, straight 



150 The Family and Society 

hair, curly hair, epilepsy, insanity, and so on. 
Each character is simple and is transmitted as 
a unit. Unit characters are transmitted by 
means of what are known as determiners. These 
determiners reside in the germ plasm of the 
reproductive organs, namely, in the sperm of the 
male and the egg of the female. Since the germ 
plasms are isolated away from the bodily struc- 
ture at large, many of the characters of the 
latter do not influence them. Thus mutilations 
made on the body and skill attained by it are 
not transmissible because they do not act on the 
germ plasms. But since the germ cells, in com- 
mon with bodily cells, are nourished by the blood, 
poor conditions of the blood may affect them. 
They may be pauperized by lack of nutrition, 
and what is known as "race poisons " might 
ensue. While the presence of characters in the 
body does not always prove that their deter- 
miners are present, their absence generally indi- 
cates that the determiners are not present. 

Each of the germ cells contains a nucleus 
which is the organizing part of the cell in mat- 
ters of growth. The nucleus, in turn, contains 
chromosomes, which appear to be its real active 
portion. These chromosomes, or certain of them, 
are thought to bear the determiners. Hence, 
unit characters, those of sex included among 



Biological Phases of Sex 151 

their number, are handed down by means of the 
chromosomes. 

But whether the resulting offspring will be 
male or female appears to be a matter of chance. 
Each kind of sex-cell possesses what are known 
as X chromosomes. These are regarded as " sex- 
chromosomes." One half of the mature male 
cells have these, the other half do not. On the 
other hand, all the mature female sex-cells bear 
such "sex-chromosomes." When a sperm and 
an ovum, each possessing X chromosomes, unite 
in fertilization, the fertilized egg will develop 
into a female. But when a sperm without this 
X chromosome fertilizes an egg^ the issue is a 
male. Hence it may be said that the presence 
of two determiners produces a female and that 
of but one a male. (Davenport, Heredity in Re- 
lation to Eugenics, Chap.^; Walter, Genetics, 
Chap. 10.) 

This theory has been attested by various 
groups of facts of a demonstrative nature. Its 
positivity is, of course, dependent on verification. 
The theory is held by men like Loeb, Davenport, 
Walter, and other well-known authorities. Wal- 
ter in his Genetics, presents three lines of data 
which are believed to prove its certainty. It 
would appear, therefore, that this theory of sex- 
determination is no longer a mere hypothesis. 



152 The Family and Society 

A comprehension of this theory demonstrates 
that all efforts on the part of parents to regu- 
late the sex of desired offspring must prove 
abortive. For, according to our present knowl- 
edge, the mechanism of determination is beyond 
the reach of artifice. There appears to be no 
means of so influencing the X chromosomes that 
they shall combine in the exact proportion which 
results in either male or female as desired. 

5. Summary 

The importance of sex and sex-differences in 
the problems of the family and society warrants 
a scientific treatment of sex in order that its 
nature and influence may be understood. We 
have discovered the following facts relative to it : 
First, it is probable that sex-differences and sex 
itself do not exist in the lowest forms of life, but 
are introduced at the time when reproduction of 
the young by means of special sex organs begins 
to occur. Previous to this the members of a spe- 
cies were alike. Afterward, they were distinguished 
as male and female. This stage of development 
was not specifically and universally reached until 
higher forms of animals and vegetation appeared. 

Ward's theory that males are the result of the 
development of females, having been differen- 
tiated from their appended fertilizing organs, 



Biological Phases of Sex 153 

is ingenious but probably erroneous. His expla- 
nation of the subordination of woman, however, 
by reason of the superior strength of man, and 
because of woman's limitations due to child- 
bearing, is unquestionably true. 

Second, the function of sex is largely a race 
and evolutionary matter. Using the language 
of teleology, we may say that nature originated 
sex in order that individuals might become more 
variable. This has been a distinct advantage for 
securing a more rapid evolution of life forms, 
6ince the greater variety of strains there are to 
cross, the greater the variety of forms there are 
for the working of natural selection. It may also 
serve advantageously to men and women now 
who intelligently choose life mates. By under- 
standing the nature of reproduction, a more 
valid, or at least a less debilitated and diseased 
type of offspring, and hence human stock, may 
be secured. 

Third, we find that the sexes are different in 
their natures. They have human nature in com- 
mon, but the fact of their physiological differ- 
ences relative to reproduction has a consequence 
for them, physically and psychically. Each sex 
has been differentiated for a specific reproductive 
purpose. This, in turn, has affected their de- 



154 The Family and Society 

sires and center of interest in life. Since the 
woman is more intimately associated with the 
offspring, her interests in life and her division 
of labor more immediately center in them. This 
does not mean that she is inferior to man, because 
her particular function, her greatest purpose in 
life, is as important as any that man may at- 
tempt. Man's dominance in the affairs of the 
world and over woman has made it appear that 
he is innately superior. But it is probable that 
woman's exclusion from world affairs, her lack 
of practice in and development relative to them, 
are sufficient explanations of her backwardness. 

Fourth, it has been seen that there have been 
almost innumerable theories as to how the sex of 
offspring is determined. We found reason for re- 
jecting Geddes' and Thomson's theory that nutri- 
tion chiefly accounts for sex, because more recent 
investigations point to another solution of the 
problem. It is inevitable that the results recently 
gained by cytologists should be accepted, since 
they are so amply substantiated by different 
kinds of evidence. It may be accepted as a scien- 
tific fact that sex is determined in the fertilized 
ovum by the sex determinants carried by the 
combining sperm and ovum. This means that 
external influences and all sorts of artifice are 
powerless to decide the results. Briefly stated, 



Biological Phases of Sex 155 

the X chromosomes decide the issue. If a sperm 
which contains no X chromosome fertilizes an 
egg — X chromosomes being constituents of all 
eggs — the issue will be male ; but if it contains 
such chromosom3, the issue will be female. So 
far as human artifice extends, it appears to be 
a mere chance whether the one or the other kind 
of combination will occur. 



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